Swiss government proposes CHF10 million UNRWA donation
After months of debate, the government has said it wants to release CHF10 million ($11 million) for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. A decision on a second envelope of CHF10 million will be taken later in the year.
This payment is in response to UNRWA’s appeal for humanitarian aid, ministers said in a press release. It is intended exclusively for Gaza and to cover the organisation’s most urgent needs for the rest of 2024: food, water, shelter, primary healthcare and logistics.
Some 2.3 million people in Gaza, including 1.7 million displaced persons, are dependent on emergency aid, and the UN is warning of the imminent risk of famine. The Swiss government said it “recognises this emergency situation”.
+ Read more: the allegations upending UNRWA’s efforts in Gaza
UNRWA has been in turmoil since Israel accused the agency and some of its employees of directly supporting Hamas during the bloody attacks on Israel on October 7. Various donor countries suspended their contributions to UNRWA in January because of the accusations. Many have since resumed payments.
Initially, Switzerland was to donate CHF20 million for 2024. These funds were suspended since last December, pending a decision by government, which also had to consult the foreign policy committees in parliament.
A government spokesman said on Wednesday that the second tranche of CHF10 million would be the subject of a decision later in the year.
The current decision also takes account of the conclusions of a report by the independent review group headed by former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna, the government continued.
+ More: can the Colonna report restore UNRWA’s credibility?
The report, whose aim was to examine UNRWA’s neutrality, found that the organisation had a solid monitoring system. However, it also made 50 recommendations to further strengthen neutrality, particularly in the areas of communication, educational material and the use of infrastructure.
Parliament’s foreign policy committees will yet have to decide on the Swiss contribution. One of the two committees recently recommended that the government release part of the planned CHF20 million, while also calling for Switzerland to make no further payments to UNRWA in the medium term.
External Content
Adapted from French by DeepL/dos
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
External Content
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished… We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.
More
Flat-hunting in Switzerland’s cheapest and most expensive municipalities
More
The Russia affair in the Swiss secret service: ‘This is espionage’
More
Is Switzerland repeating England’s housing mistakes?
More
What a love of cat ladders says about the Swiss
More
Swiss food labels must declare animal suffering from July
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.