Australia is reviewing its $80 million commitment to the UN Palestinian aid agency after several European nations stopped their funding following allegations of abuse, discrimination and the incitement of violence towards Israelis.
The re-evaluation of Australia’s aid agreement with the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees comes after Switzerland and The Netherlands halted funding in the wake of alleged misconduct by several of the group’s highest-ranking officials.
It is alleged the officials had “engaged in sexual misconduct, nepotism, retaliation, discrimination and other abuses of authority”, with the claims emerging from a leaked internal ethics report last month.
The allegations have triggered a fresh UN investigation into its subsidiary, a group still reeling from the US decision last year to cease funding to the “irredeemably flawed” group Washington found was inciting violence and honouring terrorists in its school system.
The Australian understands the Morrison government had been conducting its own investigation into UNRWA schools and was reassessing its funding prior to the emergence of the corruption allegations.
A study from April into the Palestinian Authority’s curriculum, taught at UNRWA schools in the West Bank, found content had become “more radical”, with a “clear deterioration” in its incitement to violence and rejection of peace with Israel.
Read the article by Elias Visontay in The Australian.