[Salon] It is time to stand up - ArabDigest.org Guest Post

“It is time to stand up” Summary: British diplomat Martin Griffiths enunciates the costs and consequences of the world allowing Israel to defenestrate UNRWA from Palestine. On Tuesday on BBC Radio 4’s The World at One Martin Griffiths who served as Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator at the United Nations from 2021 to 2024 described the Knesset vote to outlaw UNRWA as “deeply, deeply shocking and illegal if implemented.” The Israelis have given UNRWA just 90 days from the day that the bills were passed (28 October) to get out. As we noted in our 25 October newsletter and as Griffiths affirmed should the Israelis be allowed to get away with a decision the Knesset voted 92-10 to implement the precedent it would set would further undermine the UN’s legitimacy and authority not just in the Middle East but throughout the world: It sets a terrible precedent for other places who will say ‘well you didn’t object to Israel shutting sown your agency so we will do it here, thank you very much.’ For Griffiths of course the most immediate concern is the impact it will have on Palestinians who are already in a catastrophic situation stalked by hunger, disease and the ever constant fear and the devastating reality of Israeli air and ground strikes. Griffiths was asked if he saw the Knesset vote as UNICEF did, that it is “a new way to kill children.” He replied I do. UNICEF is right to focus on children and God knows the tragedy for children is as we all have seen it day to day and it is getting worse and worse and worse. This is a new way to kill children. It is also a new way to take away hope from the people of Palestine. As we all know and I know from my own experience as a mediator you remove hope from people and they start to die because they have no horizon for themselves of for their families. So it is a new way to end the aspirations of the Palestinian people and it must be challenged. The implementation must be stopped. Although it loudly proclaims the organisation is a terrorist front, the core reason for the Israeli effort to evict UNRWA is that it would end the refugee status for Palestinians, a key part of Israel’s vision to redraw the map of the Middle East and end once and for all the right of return while destroying any hopes for a Palestinian state. UNRWA holds the archival records for what is estimated to be one and a half million Palestinian refugees. “UNRWA,” Griffiths said “is the precise companion created to support the right of return and the future of the Palestinian people toward a two-state solution.” However the immediate concern is that “UNRWA runs all the convoys in Gaza and will not now be able to. Its staff will now be at (further) risk.” Reflecting on how so little humanitarian aid is currently being allowed by the Israelis into North Gaza while “it is being scrubbed clear of civilian life and presence” he said that though there are other medium and long term issues that are equally important the most immediate one is the urgency of getting aid in now. Israel has justified the vote by repeating the allegation that UNRWA staff were participants in the 7 October Hamas attack. Griffiths referred to the Independent Review Group led by Catherine Colonna, former French Foreign Minister which had noted that Israeli authorities had not responded to repeated requests for “the names and supporting evidence that would enable UNRWA to open an investigation.” As he said: “they were very clear in their report that the evidence provided by Israel was not authenticated, not as it were court ready. No evidence was provided that could lead to a conviction.” Former Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator at the United Nations Martin Griffiths described the Knesset vote to outlaw UNRWA as “deeply, deeply shocking and illegal if implemented.” Griffiths expressed some optimism that the UNSC was urgently discussing the Knesset vote. On Tuesday a consensus was reached among the 15 members urging Israel "to abide by its international obligations, respect the privileges and immunities of UNRWA and live up to its responsibility to allow and facilitate full, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian assistance in all its forms into and throughout the entire Gaza Strip." But as Griffiths said words are not enough: We have seen a lot of expressions of quote unquote concern coming from different parts of the world and concern is not enough because we have seen in many ways over the last year and a month that Israel does not bend to concern. Israel freely states its objectives and pursues them. It is no surprise about what they are doing. UNRWA institutions have been bombed. Their staff have been killed. Concern does not bring them back. Action is therefore what is needed. He said that the UK should have halted weapons exports to Israel “a long time ago” and that even in the midst of the US election the Americans should too. “I would say ‘knock it off. why are you waiting so long?’ “It is time,” Griffiths said “to stand up.” You can hear the full interview here beginning at 14’20. Immediately before Martin Griffiths is an interview with Amjad al-Shawa from the Palestine NGO Network. Considering what Griffiths had said about the removal of hope being in itself a lethal weapon it is worth quoting how al-Shawa concluded his interview: One of my missions is to get hope mainly to the children. I am visiting the sites and you see these children who are supposed to be in school. These are traumatised children and you know they are giving me hope. I have nothing to deliver sometimes but this is the only thing: to tell the people yes we have hope, we do not lose hope. His interview begins at 9’36. The full segment starts at 7’15 and includes a clip from Sharren Haskel the MK who was a sponsor of the two bills.