Should Canada restart funding for UNWRA?

Protesters wave flags and sing as police line the entrance to the Art Gallery of Ontario, where a cancelled event for Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, was to take place, in Toronto, Saturday, Mar. 2, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston

Canada is facing increasing pressure from humanitarian advocates and Muslim and Arab Canadians to restore funding to UNRWA, the UN aid organization for Palestinian refugees, as mass starvation looms in Gaza.

More than two million Gazans are on the precipice of catastrophe, humanitarian groups say, as aid delivery is choked off by Israel’s near-total blockade of the Palestininan enclave and its ongoing war against Hamas.

‘The air drops are pathetic and dismal. They provide photo ops for governments who want to appear like they want to help,” says Alex Neve, an international human rights lawyer and senior fellow with the University of Ottawa’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs.

"It's a powerful indictment of the fact that no governments, not the Canadian government and even the United States seems able to convince the Israeli government to do the right thing," Neve said.

In January, the Trudeau government halted funding for UNWRA in response to allegations that agency staff played a role in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.

On Thursday, when asked if he would reinstate funding amid worsening humanitarian conditions, Trudeau would not confirm one way or the other.

"The ongoing humanitarian crisis and disaster in Gaza is heart wrenching for everyone," he said, adding the government is monitoring the UN's probe into the allegations.

Children dying from malnourishment

The air drops are occurring on the heels of a visit by the World Health Organization to two hospitals in northern Gaza last weekend. The WHO last visited the area in October during the early stages of the Israel-Hamas war.

Officials recorded severe levels of malnutrition and shortages of fuel, food and medical supplies and found at least 10 children had died of starvation.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreysesus appealed to Israel on X to “ensure humanitarian aid can be safely delivered safely and regularly.”

“Civilians, especially children, and health staff need scaled-up help immediately. But the key medicine all these patients need is peace. Ceasefire.” wrote Ghebreysesus in his social media post.

The ‘flour massacre’

The WHO update came five days after an incident where more than 100 people were killed. In the early hours of Feb. 29, thousands of hungry Palestinians crowded around a convoy of aid trucks in northern Gaza. They were hoping to get a bag of flour to feed their starving families.

Israeli Defense Force Rear Adm Daniel Hagari said troops fired warning shots to disperse a mob trying to ambush the convoy. Israel contends the majority of people died after being trampled in a stampede or were run over by aid trucks.

But witnesses say soldiers fired at people, then the dead and injured were later run over by Israeli tanks. Doctors reported treating dozens of people who had been shot. UN human rights experts have condemned the event, dubbed the “flour massacre.”

In an interview with CTV News, Sari Bashi, the program director for Human Rights Watch in the West Bank, says Israel is deliberately causing a famine.

“We have concerns that the Israeli military is not fulfilling its obligations as an occupying power to ensure that the civilian population is adequately supplied with life saving aid, and in fact it is actively impeding delivery of life-saving aid and using starvation as a weapon of war.”

One day after the deadly chaos, the European Union announced on March 1, that it would restore funding to the UNWRA.

Canada has yet to decide if it will do the same.

Anger over UNRWA defunding

Israel claimed that 12 of UNRWA’s 13,000 workers were directly involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks which killed about 1,200 Israelis.

After the allegations surfaced on Jan. 26, Canada and more than a dozen other donor countries, including the United States, Britain, Germany and Australia paused payments as the United Nations swiftly launched an investigation.

Canada had previously committed $100 million dollars to UNRWA over four years. One quarter of that money went out in 2023, but this pause means Canada is holding back $75 million in funds, including an upcoming payment in April.

Israel’s claim came out the same day the International Court of Justice ruled that a “plausible” was occurring in Gaza.

Warning of “catastrophic conditions” the ICJ ordered Israel to “take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian aid.”

The initial case accusing Israel of contravening the UN Convention on Genocide was brought in front of the World Court by South Africa.

On Wednesday, South Africa, alarmed by a “situation of widespread starvation brought on by continuing egregious breaches” filed a new application urging the ICJ to impose additional orders on Israel without a hearing.

Court fight and calls for sanctions

Last weekend in Toronto, hundreds of demonstrators angry about the defunding of UNRWA prevented International Development Minister Ahmed Hussen and other guests from entering through the main doors of the Art Gallery of Ontario to attend a reception for Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

In video posted on X, one demonstrator is heard yelling at Hussen: “How dare you call yourself a Muslim. Shame on you…You are complicit in genocide. You are complicit in the murder of my family members and my friends.”

UNRWA says a minimum of 500 truckloads of humanitarian aid is needed each day to meet basic needs, though far fewer are actually getting through.

Human rights advocates say Canada needs to do more than just restore funding to UNRWA.

Neve says the Trudeau government should impose sanctions on Israel to pressure it to abide by the ICJ ruling and let in significantly more humanitarian aid.

“Sanctions have been imposed against Hamas and other armed Palestinian leaders but nothing has been put in place against Israeli officials or Israeli military officials.” Neve said.

The reluctance of the government to act has compelled a group of human rights lawyers and Palestinian-Canadians to take legal action.

They are suing the Liberal government in federal court to stop it from exporting military goods and technology to Israel.

The pressure is growing as the death toll in Gaza mounts. The Hamas-run health authority estimates that more than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in five months of war, more than a third of them are children.

This week, as Israel faced harsh rebuke across the globe for its obstruction of the delivery of humanitarian aid following the “Flour Massacre,” the Jewish state provided a new estimate of alleged Hamas infiltration.

“Over 450 UNRWA employees are military operatives in terror groups in Gaza…this is no mere coincidence. This is systematic,” said Hagari, the military’s chief spokesperson on Monday. Hagari did not provide evidence to back up his accusation.