In an effort to support the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) after it has suffered from continuous cuts from the US, Spain has pledged to donate $175m to Palestinian relief by 2026.
At a press conference on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly co-chaired by Brazil, Spain and Jordan on Thursday afternoon, several stakeholders aimed to draw the attention to the “precarious financial situation of agency”.
Spain’s Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares Bueno said that there is “no other alternative” to Unrwa, and that Spain “cannot and will not remain indifferent to the suffering of Palestine, of the Palestinian people”, before he announced that his state’s contributions to Palestinian relief will reach 150 million euro by 2026.
Jordan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ayman Safadi and Unrwa chief Philippe Lazzarini were also at the event and spoke on the importance of Unrwa in helping what they call a “human-induced famine” and a tragedy in Gaza.
In addition to the $70m Spain has provided since the end of 2023, it is announcing a new disbursement of an extra $11m.
“Financial contribution is more vital than ever, particularly as certain states are pulling back their commitment,” he said. “We cannot allow – we cannot afford – Unrwa to collapse,” Buenos added.
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All members of the panel asked UN member states to join in an effort to keep Unrwa afloat as it withstands “external, political and legal actions against the agency and its mandate as responsible members of the international community”.
Lazzarini warned that if the international community did not step up to fill the funding gap that the US has left, Unrwa may need to take “drastic measures”.
“Traditionally, we used to receive in January the US contribution and funding which allowed the agency to start the year with a deficit. But now this won’t be possible, and the need for new money, in fact, is right now, $200m,” he said.
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“We have put in place drastic cost control and austerity measure within the organisation. But it does’’t mean that we will succeed to continue to measure flow so without significant new money, the agency will be obliged to take additional drastic measures,” Lazzarini concluded.
Among these “drastic measures” has been the inability to pay Unrwa staff in Egypt and curbing subsidies to Palestinian refugee families in Lebanon and Syria – even with amounts as small as five dollars.
He also talked about the immense struggle of Unrwa staff in Gaza, who he says are suffering the same as the general population in Gaza. He warned that it is a grave danger when the first responders themselves are suffering, and that it is a sign that the entire humanitarian response is collapsing.
Funding, he later said, was the least of his pleas.
“We all know we need – we needed yesterday – a ceasefire. We needed yesterday the release of the hostages. We needed yesterday a scaling up of the humanitarian assistance to reverse the unfolding horrors. But we also need now that we restore the humanitarian response as it was at the time of the ceasefire.”
