Swiss Parliament “Immediately Suspends” Support for UNRWA

Switzerland moved to defund UNWRA after overwhelming evidence of the agency’s ties to terror organizations.

When the most neutral country in the world recognized UNWRA is a problem, it is time for all other countries to follow.

Breaking: Switzerland moved to defund UNWRA after overwhelming evidence of the agency’s ties to terror organizations.

When the most neutral country in the world recognized UNWRA is a problem, it is time for all other countries to follow. pic.twitter.com/95JuCraAQM

— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) September 10, 2024

Swiss Parliament Adopts Motion to “Immediately Suspend” Support for UNRWA

By: UN Watch, September 10, 2024:

GENEVA, September 10, 2024 — The Swiss Parliament’s lower house, the National Council, adopted a motion yesterday to “immediately suspend” support for UNRWA, by a vote of 99 to 88. Two related motions called on Switzerland to instead send aid directly to Gazans, and to seek a solution to replace UNRWA altogether.

The parliamentary motion’s explanatory comments specifically cite the reports of UN Watch, the independent non-governmental organization based in Geneva, in decrying UNRWA staff glorification of terrorism.

When the parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee held a hearing in April on UNRWA, Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, was the only critical voice to be invited as an expert witness.

In his presentation to the parliament, Neuer had presented a dossier on UNRWA’s terror ties, and exposed the “independent audit” released in April by former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna—which was used by Germany and other states as a pretext to reinstate funding—as a complete farce.

Comment from Hillel Neuer

“By calling for an immediate suspension of UNRWA funding, and for the agency to be replaced, the parliament of Switzerland has sent a powerful and unequivocal message: that UNRWA is tainted to the core by its complicity with terrorism,” said Neuer.

“This is the first defunding of UNRWA following the rigged Colonna Report, and the Swiss parliament’s decision amounts to a devastating rejection of the entire report.”

“The rebuke of UNRWA is especially poignant coming from Switzerland, which is the guardian of the Geneva Conventions, and is rightly upholding international humanitarian law against an agency that is cynically abusing those principles.”

“The vote is also a slap in the face to UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini, a Swiss national who invested an enormous amount of time this past year lobbying in Switzerland to block this motion. Lazzarini failed, and the facts prevailed.”

“Despite numerous attempts by UN Watch to pass warnings to Mr. Lazzarini of the terror ties of his employees, he has repeatedly refused to meet with us.”

“As I have said before, if Mr. Lazzarini and UNRWA truly cared about the complicity of senior UNRWA staff with terrorism, he would agree to meet with me and see our latest dossier. I am again urging him to meet with me. I will meet with him in Geneva, Amman, Jerusalem. I will meet with him anywhere.”

“But the truth is that the real leaders of UNRWA are not the handful of internationals who do the agency’s fundraising in the West. It is rather individuals like Fathi al-Sharif, head of UNRWA’s staff union in Lebanon and a senior leader of Hamas. Or officials like Suhail al-Hindi, who long headed UNRWA’s staff union in Gaza and is an elected member of the Hamas Politburo alongside Yahya Sinwar.”

“The entire organization has been infiltrated and hijacked by Hamas terrorists to serve the terror group’s war aims.”

“Over 173,000 people have signed UN Watch’s petition demanding that Western democracies defund UNRWA and immediately seek a solution to replace its services. We commend Switzerland for acting on this appeal.”

UNRWA Sued For Promoting Terrorism

UNRWA and Lazzarini are currently the object of at least six legal proceedings alleging that the agency promotes terrorism, in Canada, France and the US. An internal UN investigation fired at least 9 UNRWA employees for their involvement in the October 7th massacre.

In 2018, Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis said that UNRWA “has become part of the problem. UNRWA supplies the ammunition to continue the conflict. By supporting UNRWA, we keep the conflict alive. It’s a perverse logic.”

In 2019, Switzerland temporarily suspended funding for UNRWA, joining Belgium, the Netherlands and New Zealand, in wake of an ethics report that implicated then commissioner-general Pierre Krahenbuhl (now the head of the ICRC) in a corruption and abuse scandal. Contrary to certain reports, he was never cleared.

Evidence Against UNRWA

• Dossier: UNRWA’s Terror Ties

• Rigged: UNRWA’s “Independent” Review

• Exposed: Francesca Albanese’s UNRWA Lobby

• Teachers of Terror: UNRWA Union Chief Is Hamas Leader

Related:

• UNRWA Employees Fired For Taking Part in Massacres, Kidnappings and Mass Rapes of October 7th
• Found Inside Gaza City UNRWA HQ – Hamas, War Rooms, Drones, Explosives, Weapons
• Senior UNRWA Official is Top Figure in Hamas, Head of the UNRWA Teachers Union in Lebanon, Overseeing 39,000 Students in 65 Schools
• Terrorists Hiding in UNRWA School Near Rafah
• UNRWA Caught Stealing and Then Selling Humanitarian Aid that Came into Gaza, UNRWA Staff “Have Their Homes Full of Aid”
• UNRWA Staff Recordings Prove Hamas Treated Young Women ‘Like Animals’
• Amid Evidence That UNRWA Employees Participated in Oct. 7 Jihad Massacre, UNRWA Gets Nobel Peace Prize Nomination
• Republicans Introduce Bill to Completely Defund Terror Agency UNRWA
• Biden Appointed Terror-Linked UNRWA Official to Senior Director for Intelligence on National Security Council
• Italy, Finland, UK, Australia, Canada and Finally USA End Payments To UN’s Terror Agency @UNRWA
• UNRWA is a Terrorist Organization
• Report: UNRWA Teacher, Gaza Doctor Kept Israeli Child Hostages
• Another UNRWA School That was Cover for a Hamas Underground Bunker
• 39 Republicans Sponsor Bill To Cut Off Funding of UNRWA
• UNRWA inciting violence with U.S. funding , study shows
• As Biden funds UNRWA, UNRWA teachers call for Jew-murder
• UN bars Israel’s ambassador from displaying pro-Hitler posts by UNRWA teacher
• Watchdog: Dozens of UNRWA Teachers Incite To Violence, Spread Jew-Hatred Online
• Hamas Top Dog Admits They Use Civilian Buildings in Gaza To Hide, UNRWA Admits Terror Tunnel Found Under Gaza Boys School
• UNRWA Caught Teaching Terrorism, Jew-Hatred as “Biden” Admin Resumes American Taxpayer Funding