Restoring funding for ‘Hamas-linked’ UNRWA would be morally bankrupt, Lord Cameron told

Spending taxpayer money on a “Hamas-linked” UN aid agency would be “morally bankrupt”, Lord Cameron has been warned.

Senior Tory MPs are urging the Foreign Secretary not to restore funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), saying it would be a “disgrace” to do so.

In January, Britain, the United States and several other countries suspended their funding to UNRWA after 12 of its workers were sacked following accusations by Israel that they took part in the Oct 7 attacks. The UN has launched its own inquiry into the claims, which is ongoing.

At the time, the Foreign Office said the UK was “appalled” by the claims that UNRWA staff were involved in a “heinous act of terrorism”, adding that it would pause any future funding while it reviewed the allegations.

The Foreign Office is waiting for a review into UNRWA’s neutrality, which is due to be published this week, before making a decision.

‘Funding should not be restored’

Several Conservative MPs have either written to Lord Cameron or met him personally to warn against restoring UNRWA’s funding, The Sunday Telegraph understands.

Therese Villiers, the former Cabinet minister, who has written to Lord Cameron to appeal to him not to restore UNRWA’s funding, said the agency is now “completely discredited”.

She told The Sunday Telegraph that the recent allegations about UNRWA staff taking part in the Oct 7 massacre are “horrific”, adding:  “But there is a long history of problems with UNRWA.

“Funding should not be restored. We need a new organisation to take over provision of aid to Palestinians which is not tainted by the failings of UNRWA.”

Israel’s defence minister said in February that it had identified dozens more UNRWA workers who took part in the Oct 7 massacre.

Yoav Gallant also said more than 1,400 workers from the UNRWA were members of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The figure amounts to about 12 per cent of the agency’s workforce in Gaza, which numbers 13,000.

Suella Braverman, the former home secretary, said: “UNRWA has been categorically discredited and it would be a disgrace for taxpayers’ money to be diverted towards its activities.

“Hamas uses UNRWA for military activities and UNRWA has totally failed to deal with it. It would be wholly inappropriate for the UK Government to fund UNRWA.”

‘UNRWA cannot be trusted’

Greg Smith, a Conservative MP, said it would be “morally bankrupt” to renew funding to Hamas. “Other aid organisations operating in Gaza need to be the ones to deliver the aid,” he said. “UNRWA cannot be trusted, they are in the hands of Hamas.”

He said he attended a briefing in Parliament last month where Israel’s deputy ambassador, along with other senior Israeli government officials, showed MPs and peers a document “as thick as the Yellow Pages book” which detailed every UNRWA employee’s name and address.

“They were highlighted in green if they were known to be a Hamas operative and in yellow if there was evidence that they were supportive of Hamas, and left blank if there was no intel,” Mr Smith said. “Over half the names were highlighted.”

Foreign Office documents show Britain has given UNRWA £27 million in aid since October 2022.

A memorandum of understanding between the Foreign Office and UNRWA shows Britain planned to hand it a further £2 million on April 15 and £9 million on Oct 1 this year.

Prior to the Oct 7 attack, UNRWA had faced criticism that anti-Israel material was taught in its schools in Gaza. During Donald Trump’s presidency, the US ended funding for the agency and described it as “irredeemably flawed”. The agency rejected the criticism, and aid was restored by Joe Biden in 2021.

‘Textbooks are anti-Semitic’

Impact-se, a non-profit organisation which specialises in counter-extremism work in schools, published a report last year about UNRWA’s textbooks.

The report alleges that textbooks used in UNRWA schools are “openly anti-Semitic and continue to encourage violence, jihad and martyrdom while peace is not taught as preferable or even possible.

“Extreme nationalism and Islamist ideologies proliferate throughout the curriculum, including in science and maths textbooks.”

Impact-se’s report also notes that by Hamas’s own admission, more than 100 UNRWA school graduates have become active Hamas terrorists.

Juliette Touma, UNRWA’s director of communications, said: “Every year we show a list of our staff with the host government, wherever we work across the region. We have never received any response from the Israeli government about the content of those lists.”

She said that Impact-se has “specifically targeted UNRWA” over the years, adding that “on many occasions it turned out that quite a lot of the contents [of its reports] are inaccurate.”

A government spokesman said: “Allegations that UNRWA staff were involved in the events that took place on Oct 7 in Israel are appalling, which is why we have taken decisive action to pause future funding to the organisation.

“Alongside our allies, we are calling on UNRWA to give detailed undertakings about changes in personnel policy and procedures to ensure this can never happen again.”