<\/b><\/p>\n
On 29 July, an<\/span> <\/span>internal ethics report<\/span><\/a> about the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) was leaked to Al Jazeera and AFP news agency. <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The internal report details serious abuses of the senior management team based on testimonies from former and current staff of the UN agency.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n It specifically accuses<\/span> <\/span>newly suspended<\/span><\/a> Commissioner-General Pierre Krahenbuhl and others from his close circle of having “engaged in sexual misconduct, nepotism, retaliation [and] other abuses of authority”. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Al Jazeera<\/span> <\/span>reported<\/span><\/a> that the leaked document suggests the situation worsened in 2018 after the US’s decision to cut funding to the agency. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The news agency stated, based on the report, that this situation “allowed the senior management to justify an extreme concentration of decision-making power in members of the ‘clique’, increased disregard for agency rules and established procedures, with exceptionalism becoming the norm; and continued excessive travel of the Commissioner-General”.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Following the leak, Switzerland and the Netherlands were the first donors to have frozen funding to UNRWA last week. The Middle East Monitor<\/span> <\/span>reported<\/span><\/a> that the Netherlands’ Minister for International Aid, Sigrid Kaag stated that “the suspension would remain in force until we get satisfactory answers”.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Belgium has been the latest country to emulate the position of Switzerland and the Netherlands. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Belgium’s Minister of Development Alexander De Croo<\/span> <\/span>asserted<\/span><\/a> last week that "We will take a critical look at the report … It is not because you stand up for a good cause that you can do whatever you want”.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon<\/span> <\/span>stated<\/span><\/a> that “the international community, which generously finances UNRWA, must immediately suspend the budgets assigned to the agency”. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Danon has long been a critic of the UNRWA having<\/span> <\/span>suggested in May<\/span><\/a> this year at a Security Council meeting that “the organisation’s schools have been transformed into terror and incitement infrastructures, with textbooks distributed on the ground denying Israel’s existence”. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n