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An injured Palestinian child sits on the rubble of a destroyed building after Israel’s bombing of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on January 18, 2024.
Photo by LOAY AYYOUB The Washington Post
Imagine that several teachers at an elementary school in the United States are accused of committing felonies, even though the evidence has not yet been released and no charges have been filed. Would anyone call for defunding entire schools and depriving students of their education? Surely not! But inexplicably, 12 of the agency’s 13,000 employees were attacked on October 7th against countries that Israel recently donated to UNRWA (the United Nations agency that provides humanitarian aid to Palestinian refugees). , the United States and other major donor countries announced staff cuts. Donation.
Only Norway continued to provide funding to UNRWA through the Norwegian Refugee Council. But Norway was right, and the US should change course and restore funding. The United Nations Convention on Genocide imposes an obligation on all signatory states to prevent genocide in their own countries and in all other countries. Israel and the United States therefore have an obligation to prevent genocide in Gaza, which in this case includes preventing the creation of living conditions aimed at destroying Palestinians as a group.
UNRWA is working diligently to prevent hunger and disease through the distribution of food, water, medicine and other aid, while providing basic shelter to homeless Palestinians. By following Norway’s wise lead and restoring funding to UNRWA, the United States can partially meet its obligation to prevent genocide in Gaza. And Israel, directed by the ICJ to fulfill similar obligations, can do so in part by accepting a ceasefire and allowing humanitarian aid to be sent anywhere in the Gaza Strip where it is needed. The United States should fund UNRWA now.
mechelen lardy
amherst
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