Israel: UNRWA Ban Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for International Development
Richard Holden
Main Page: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)Department Debates - View all Richard Holden's debates with the Department for International Development
(3 weeks, 4 days ago)
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Anneliese Dodds
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for meeting the UN representative. I know that many Members have been seeking to engage with the multilateral organisations involved in this situation. The UK Government have, of course, engaged repeatedly with all the UN agencies involved: the World Food Programme, UNICEF, with which I have directly discussed the situation, and UNRWA itself. I pay tribute to all those who are engaged in that manner, as well as to all the charities and other bodies so engaged, including UK-Med, which is doing an incredibly important job. The new UK Government will continue to do all we can to ensure that international humanitarian law is upheld here, as well as in every other context.
Mr Richard Holden (Basildon and Billericay) (Con)
Of the 12,000 UNRWA employees, about one in five are members of Hamas, and almost 500 of them are members of Hamas’s military wing. When I asked the Foreign Secretary whether he could guarantee that UK taxpayers’ money would not go via UNRWA if there were any links with Hamas, he did not answer my question, so I ask the same question today. Is the Minister able to give UK taxpayers a guaranteed assurance that Hamas has no links with UNRWA in aid delivery in Gaza?
Anneliese Dodds
When it comes to the views of the UK public and UK taxpayers, it is critical for us to reflect on what has taken place over the last few days, when we have seen a great many Brits stepping up to support the DEC humanitarian appeal for the middle east. This is clearly of great concern. Of course it is important that whenever there are allegations of activity that is not neutral—particularly some of the appalling allegations relating to the 7 October attacks—they are fully investigated. When it has been provided with that evidence, UNRWA has investigated and taken swift action, and we will continue to do all that we can, as the UK Government, to ensure that that remains the case. As I said earlier, that has included providing funding to ensure that the neutrality reforms that UNRWA itself has wanted to implement for some time are indeed being implemented and followed.