France's Colonna to lead UNRWA investigation as Spain, Portugal donate $4.8 M

PARIS — The United Nations announced Monday that an independent review group will investigate Israeli allegations that 12 staff members of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which serves the Palestinian territories, had participated in Hamas' Oct. 7 assault against Israel. Former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna will lead the review. In addition to investigating the accusations against the 12 UNRWA members, the group will also assess whether the agency was doing everything in its power to ensure its own neutrality.

A statement from the office of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said that Colonna will enlist the help of three research organizations including Sweden's Raoul Wallenberg Institute, Norway's Chr. Michelsen Institute and the Danish Institute for Human Rights. The group is set to begin work on Feb. 14 and will submit an interim report to the UN secretary-general in late March as well as a final report by late April. "The final report will be made public," it read.

The United States suspended its contributions to the agency on Jan. 26 in the wake of the allegations. “The United States is extremely troubled by the allegations,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said at the time, adding that Washington was reviewing “the steps the United Nations is taking to address them.” And on Jan. 29, House Republicans introduced legislation to permanently end the US government’s financial support to the refugee agency.

Several other donor states quickly announced they were also suspending their contributions to the agency including Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Estonia and Romania. Sweden and France, neither of which had any donations planned for the first semester of 2024, said that they are expecting a thorough investigation.

Some EU member states have taken an opposing position. Spain said on Monday it will donate $3.8 million to the United Nations' Palestinian refugee agency. Spain is joining Portugal, which also pledged last week to continue its contributions to the agency and is offering it an additional million dollars for the first semester of 2024.

Addressing Spanish lawmakers Monday, Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said, "UNRWA's situation is desperate and there is a serious risk that its humanitarian activities will be paralyzed in Gaza within a few weeks." The Spanish announcement came the day before Albares is set to leave for a Middle East tour to Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in what his ministry called "a new effort to promote solutions to the Middle East crisis." Albares last traveled to the region on Jan. 23, visiting Lebanon and Iraq, where he pledged that Spain would engage more significantly in the region. 

Participating in the European summit in Brussels last Friday, Portuguese Foreign Minister Joao Gomes Cravinho said he had met with UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini and was “completely confident and satisfied with the explanations” provided by him, saying, “This is not something structural within UNRWA.” The Portuguese minister added, “UNRWA’s work is essential and therefore we will continue to support UNRWA.” He explained that his country will make a special additional contribution to the agency and stressed, “This additional million will now come in different circumstances, in a context in which some countries have announced that they will freeze their funding.” 

Spain and Portugal are not major donors to the agency. Spain ranked 17th on the donors list with a contribution of $13 million in 2022, and Portugal was ranked 60th with a contribution of $105,000. The largest donors to UNRWA in 2022 were the United States ($343 million), Germany ($202 million), the European Union ($114 million), Sweden ($60 million) and Norway ($34 million). As the humanitarian crisis in Gaza grew, Madrid decided to significantly expand its humanitarian aid to the Palestinian territories and Spain increased its 2023 donation in December, offering the agency a total of $20 million for the year.

A Belgian diplomat told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, "With the current humanitarian crisis, the European Union must expand its humanitarian assistance to the residents of Gaza, and the Belgian presidency of the EU will push in that direction. Blocking UNRWA is not the way to go about that. On the contrary."

On Thursday, Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide criticized the decision by several European countries to freeze their contribution to UNRWA. “Many countries” are realizing that the current situation cannot last, Eide told Reuters, adding, “They’re looking for a way out. And maybe if now UNRWA comes up quickly with a good response which is accepted as serious, they will then happily restart.” Eide said he was “reasonably optimistic” on the resumption of funding.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz hailed the announcement by the UN, saying, "We will submit all evidence highlighting UNRWA’s ties to terrorism and its harmful effects on regional stability," adding, "It is imperative that this committee brings the truth to the light, necessitating the immediate resignation of the UNRWA chairman."

The New York Times has suggested that the Israeli military does not necessarily agree that the agency should be shut down. The report on Saturday cited Israel Defense Forces officers as being surprised that the intelligence about the 12 UNRWA staff members suspected of participating in the Oct. 7 assault had been leaked to American officials. The paper suggested it was UNRWA itself that leaked the information to the Biden administration after hearing about it from Israel’s Foreign Ministry, not Israel's intelligence services.