Workers Party of Ireland members march in solidarity with Gaza, October 2023
The Workers Party of Ireland has issued a powerful condemning the Israeli attempts to portray the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) of involvement in terrorism and the cutting of funding to UNRWA by some countries as a result. As they note these allegations conveniently were made on the same day the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to take action to prevent acts of genocide against the Palestinian people.
The International Court of Justice on Friday, 26th January 2024 ordered Israel to take action to prevent acts of genocide against the Palestinian people. While it stopped short of calling for a ceasefire it is nonetheless a welcome step.
How did Israel respond? On the same day as the legal finding by the ICJ, Israel accused the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) of involvement in terrorism. The racist Israeli Government attempts to portray UNRWA as a terrorist organisation without any evidence to support these allegations.
UNRWA was established in 1949 with a mandate to provide humanitarian assistance and protection to registered Palestine refugees in the Agency’s area of operations pending a just and lasting solution to their plight. UNRWA operates in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, The Gaza Strip, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. Tens of thousands of Palestine refugees who lost their homes and livelihoods due to the 1948 Zionist aggression continue to be displaced and in need of support, nearly 75 years on.
The Workers Party of Ireland is disappointed, but not surprised, to learn of the actions of the Zionist State and the complicity of a number of its allies in freezing funding to humanitarian relief designed to bolster the Israeli government’s assault on UNRWA at a time when humanitarian aid is desperately needed and Gaza is on the verge of famine.
The Zionist state has long resented the role of UNWRA and this latest measure, despite the ruling of the ICJ, is designed to deepen the genocide and obliterate the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people. These vile and cynical ploys shall not succeed.
This present strategy is a deliberate attempt to isolate UNRWA internationally and deprive it of essential funding, without which it cannot continue to operate in its capacity as the primary organisation providing education, health and relief services to millions of Palestinian victims of the Israeli occupation and genocidal war. It is a further attempt to extend the genocidal consequences of its infliction of harm on the innocent civilian Palestinian population of Gaza by preventing them the right to humanitarian aid and the right to return home.
The Workers Party of Ireland has a long history of supporting the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people to their homeland and to live in peace, free from military aggression, occupation and war. The WPI continues to support the just struggle of the Palestinian people and demands that the services provided by UNRWA should continue unimpeded by the political/military manoeuvring of the Israeli Government and its foreign imperialist allies who remain complicit in this further attack on the victims of the current Zionist onslaught.
Solidarity with Palestine!
Victory to the Palestinian people!
Ted Tynan, President
Gerry Grainger, International Secretary
Workers Party of Ireland
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