Key Points
- Opposition home affairs spokesperson James Paterson has criticised the government’s decision to restore funding to the UNRWA.
- Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the government would "unpause" funding to the organisation.
- Israel has accused members of the organisation's staff of involvement with Hamas.
The Opposition's home affairs spokesperson James Paterson has criticised the government’s decision to restore funding to the primary aid organisation in the Palestinian territories, repeating the Israeli government’s accusations that members of the organisation’s staff are linked with Hamas.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said on Friday to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).
She said the move was informed by the National Security Council, adding that the group does "life-saving work".
Wong cited other countries such Canada and Sweden resuming their funding when asked why the government made its decision.
In late January, Israel accused 12 UNRWA staff of involvement in Hamas' 7 October attack, both in public statements and in a diplomatic memo known as the UNRWA File.
The file was not shared publicly but given to the governments of the US and other allies and certain news outlets, including NBC News in the US.
The file claims that not only did at least 12 UNRWA staff take part in the 7 October attack, but that 1,468 staff (out of approximately 13,000) are active members of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another militant group inside Gaza.
SBS News is unable to verify the details or veracity of the claims Israel made due to the lack of publicly available evidence.
Paterson said UNRWA employees "participated on the worst attack on Jewish people since the Holocaust".
"My view is we shouldn’t tolerate a single Australian dollar going to a to potential terrorist," he said.
"This is not the only accusation against them. Israel have been warning us for years about the behaviour of UNRWA and the warnings were ignored."
He also made an unverified claim that the organisation was supplying power to a Hamas datacentre.
The Israeli army levelled more accusations at UNRWA on 4 March, saying it employed over 450 "military operatives" from Hamas and other armed groups, and that Israel has shared this intelligence with the UN.
It did not publicly provide evidence to back up its claims.
Hamas is a Palestinian political and military group, which has governed the Gaza Strip since the most recent elections in 2006.
Hamas’s stated aim is to establish a Palestinian state and stop the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, illegal under international law.
Hamas in its entirety is listed as a terrorist organisation by the European Union and seven other countries, including Australia. But the UN Assembly rejected classifying Hamas as a terrorist group in a 2018 vote.
In 2021 the International Criminal Court opened an investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes in the Palestinian territories dating back to 2014, including the recent attacks of both Israel and Hamas.
