Unfair collective punishment in Gaza

The decision by several countries to suspend their financial contributions to the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) represents, in practice, an unjustified collective punishment of the entire population of Gaza.

The group of nine countries justified the suspension of aid citing the alleged involvement of 12 local employees in the bloody attack against Israel perpetrated by Hamas on October 7. The fact that the two main donors — the United States and Germany — have been joined by, among others, the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Finland, Australia and Canada represents a loss of more than half the agency’s financing. Moreover, it has aggravated the inhumane conditions in which Gazans have been living since the Israeli army unleashed an indiscriminate, large-scale retaliatory military offensive.

For years the UNRWA has been the target of different Israeli governments determined to tarnish the role of the international humanitarian organization with accusations of collusion with terrorism. The UNRWA, which is investigating the events, has already fired nine of its 12 local employees (of the other three, one is dead and the identity of the other two is being clarified) who were allegedly involved in the attack that left 1,200 dead in Israel.

Without doubt, this is a very serious accusation that, however, cannot be used to discredit the entire agency, which is part of the United Nations. The agency employs 30,000 people, of whom 13,000 work in the Gaza Strip itself. Right now the UNRWA offers the only — minimal — support for two million people who have been subjected for three months to an inhumane siege. It is a military blockade that has already caused more than 25,000 deaths, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which is dependent on Hamas.

Punishing the UNRWA at this time has condemned hundreds of thousands of innocent people, who do not have food, water, or shelter, to a helpless plight. Meanwhile, Israeli bombings and destruction continue. Defunding the agency goes against even the merest notion of humanity and buys into the discourse of Israeli extremists, who consider all Palestinians their mortal enemy. It is also an opportunistic punishment that borders on a thirst for revenge and escapes all logic.

Adopting a measure as drastic as paralyzing the economic and operational ability of an institution that plays a role not only in welfare, but also in health and education, to purge the alleged acts of 12 employees out of a total of 30,000 is, to say the least, disproportionate. If such a radical criterion were applied to any other public or private organization on the entire planet, there may be no choice but to dissolve them all.

In the face of such a dramatic situation, Spain’s decision to continue financing the humanitarian organization to at least try to alleviate the situation of hundreds of thousands of people is the right one. That the Palestinian population is not the terrorist organization Hamas is an evident fact that has been accepted until now by everyone except those in favor of total and indiscriminate war. The unjust withdrawal of funding to the UNRWA does nothing to help a peaceful resolution of the conflict between Israel and Hamas. It will only bring more suffering to innocent civilians who will rightly feel completely abandoned by many of the world’s most powerful democracies.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition