'Attacks on UNRWA are about squeezing the Palestinians': MEMO in Conversation with Chris Gunness

Middle East Monitor Conversations

The United Nations Refugee and Work Agency (UNRWA) plays a critical role in the lives of millions of Palestinians. Setup in 1949 to support the 750,000 Palestinians expelled by Israel in the 1948 Nakba, the agency performs a number of functions from providing emergency aid and medical care, to running schools across the occupied Palestinian territories and the neighbouring Arab countries which host Palestine refugees. The decision by a number of western states to pull funding to UNRWA, citing an ongoing investigation by the agency into whether 12 former employees were involved in the 7 October attack on Israel, came just hours after the International Court of Justice released it preliminary verdict in South Africa's case against Israel for war crimes and potential genocide committed in Gaza. Many feel the decision was political and aimed at punishing the Palestinians. To assess the impact of the withdrawal of funding and the possible motivations behind it, we are joined by former UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness.
An award winning journalist, Gunness was UNRWA spokesman between 2007 and 2020 and a BBC correspondant for 25 years. He is founder and director of the Myanmar Accountability Project, a legal initiative which brings criminal prosecutions against war criminals in the Myanmar junta.