Petition to Suspend UNRWA Funding
The Honourable Maryam Monsef
Minister of International Development and Minister for Women and Gender Equality
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON
K1A 0A6
Dear Minister Monsef,
We, the undersigned, demand that the Government of Canada immediately suspend its funding of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), in light of the most recent scandal plaguing the organization.
Canada cannot in good faith continue to fund this organization until systemic and badly-needed reforms are implemented and demonstrated.
A recently released internal report has found that senior UNRWA management have engaged in "abuses of authority for personal gain, to suppress legitimate dissent and to otherwise achieve their personal objectives." The report focuses on managerial abuses which, inevitably, cast doubt on UNRWA’s programs and activities.
Such an organization has no right to subsist on Canadian taxpayer largesse.
In addition, B’nai Brith has repeatedly warned that, rather than putting Palestinian children on the path toward a brighter future, UNRWA schools have instead hardened their hearts and made the Israeli-Arab conflict even harder to resolve.
Palestinian children deserve assistance, but not through UNRWA.
Given its documented shortcomings, the United States has ceased financial support for UNRWA. Canadian friends and allies such as Switzerland and the Netherlands have frozen their funding in the wake of the most recent revelations. Now, it is Canada’s turn to take this eminently reasonable step.
We call on your Government to be completely transparent in its follow-up actions, including describing for all Canadians what the 'enhanced due diligence' framework governing support for UNRWA has achieved, if anything.
Only then can Canada lead efforts to reform fundamentally the operations of UNRWA and, ultimately, see its work absorbed into the broader U.N. refugee framework.
CC: The Honourable Chrystia Freeland
Minister of Foreign Affairs
B'nai Brith Canada | 1-844-218-2624 ext 109 [email protected]