Review of UN agency helping Palestinian refugees found Israel did not express concern about staff
Last edited Mon Apr 22, 2024, 05:04 PM - Edit history (2)
Source: AP
Updated 4:27 PM EDT, April 22, 2024
UNITED NATIONS (AP) An independent review of the neutrality of the U.N. agency helping Palestinian refugees found that Israel never expressed concern about anyone on the staff lists it has received annually since 2011. The review was carried out after Israel alleged that a dozen employees of the agency known as UNRWA had participated in Hamas Oct. 7 attacks.
In a wide-ranging 48-page report released Monday, the independent panel said UNRWA has robust procedures to uphold the U.N. principle of neutrality, but it cited serious gaps in implementation, including staff publicly expressing political views, textbooks used in schools the agency runs with problematic content and staff unions disrupting operations. It makes 50 recommendations to improve UNRWAs neutrality.
From 2017 to 2022, the report said, the annual number of allegations of neutrality being breached at UNRWA ranged from seven to 55. But between January 2022 and February 2024, U.N. investigators received 151 allegations, most related to social media posts made public by external sources, it said.
In a key section on the neutrality of staff, the panel, which was led by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, said UNRWA shares lists of staff with host countries for its 32,000 staff, including about 13,000 in Gaza. But it said Israeli officials never expressed concern and informed panel members it did not consider the list a screening or vetting process but rather a procedure to register diplomats.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-unrwa-united-nations-28a63ddef23efdc4b050b0bcbdb587ff
Link to UN NEWS page - https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/04/1148801
Link to UN REPORT page - [link:https://www.unrwa.org/resources/reports/independent-review-mechanisms-and-procedures-ensure-adherence-unrwa-humanitarianIndependent Review of Mechanisms and Procedures to Ensure Adherence by UNRWA to the Humanitarian Principle of Neutrality]
Link to REPORT (PDF) - https://www.unrwa.org/sites/default/files/content/resources/unrwa_independent_review_on_neutrality.pdf
Article updated.
Previous article -
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- An independent review of the neutrality of the U.N. agency helping Palestinian refugees found that Israel never expressed concern about anyone on the staff lists it has received annually since 2011. The review was carried out after Israel alleged that a dozen employees of the agency known as UNRWA had participated in Hamas' Oct. 7 attacks.
In a wide-ranging 48-page report released Monday, the independent panel said UNRWA has "robust" procedures to uphold the U.N. principle of neutrality, but it cited serious gaps in implementation, including staff publicly expressing political views, textbooks used in schools the agency runs with "problematic content" and staff unions disrupting operations.
From 2017 to 2022, the report said the annual number of allegations of neutrality being breached at UNRWA ranged from seven to 55. But between January 2022 and February 2024, U.N. investigators received 151 allegations, most related to social media posts "made public by external sources," it said.
In a key section on the neutrality of staff, the panel, which was led by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, said UNRWA shares lists of staff with host countries for its 32,000 staff, including about 13,000 in Gaza. But it said Israeli officials never expressed concern and informed panel members it did not consider the list "a screening or vetting process" but rather a procedure to register diplomats.
Original article -
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- An independent review of the neutrality of the U.N. agency helping Palestinian refugees found that Israel never expressed concern about anyone on the staff lists it has received annually since 2011. The review was carried out after Israel alleged that a dozen employees of the agency known as UNRWA had participated in Hamas' Oct. 7 attacks.
In a wide-ranging 48-page report released Monday, the independent panel said UNRWA has "robust" procedures to uphold the U.N. principle of neutrality, but it cited serious gaps in implementation, including staff publicly expressing political views, textbooks with "problematic content" and staff unions disrupting operations.
From 2017 to 2022, the report said the annual number of allegations of neutrality being breached at UNRWA ranged from 7 to 55. But between January 2022 and February 2024 U.N. investigators received 151 allegations, most related to social media posts "made public by external sources," it said.
In a key section on the neutrality of staff, the panel, which was led by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, said UNRWA shares lists of staff with host countries for its 32,000 staff, including about 13,000 in Gaza. But it said Israeli officials never expressed concern and informed panel members it did not consider the list "a screening or vetting process" but rather a procedure to register diplomats.
Beastly Boy
(9,419 posts)Who was doing the vetting and the hiring anyway?
Did the AP editors even notice the most consequential finding of the review that "cited serious gaps in implementation, including staff publicly expressing political views, textbooks with problematic content and staff unions disrupting operations"? They must have, since they made some effort to bury it in a long sentence, following a "but".
AP is getting increasingly desperate in their search for halfass palatable headlines to solicit one-sided knee-jerk reactions. Well, in their defense, they know their customer base, and there are less respectable ways to make tons of profits.
BumRushDaShow
(129,413 posts)but it is venerated here for whatever reason.
This is why I include links to press releases and reports so people can actually read for themselves.
Beastly Boy
(9,419 posts)Since they have no one other than the third rate TASS to compete in the Far East markets, their reports on the region are fairly informattive. But in the Middle East, where they have to compete for business with the likes of Al Jazeera, they must aggressively play up to their intended audiences or perish.
It's business, nothing personal.
BumRushDaShow
(129,413 posts)but they will also do story blasts to the outlets that subscribe to their wire service and those outlets will publish them right away, often WAY before AP finally gets the story up on their own website. And then they continually change their headlines and story content obsessively (which is not good for LBN purposes).
JI7
(89,262 posts)moniss
(4,274 posts)for the review regarding textbooks etc. Their name is IMPACT-SE. That same NGO previously found problems with the textbooks in Israeli schools also. This entire subject is one that has been a problem for decades and decades also. There have been several different reviews of both by different organizations over the years. Each group, Israelis and Palestinians, typically more or less pooh-pooh the report critical of them while pointing to the other. Various NGO's/professors critique the various NGO's about methodology/criteria/interpretation/personnel/scope/thoroughness etc. I did a post about this whole thing sometime back last year I think. I could be wrong about the date.