UK must reverse aid cut or risk complicity in Gaza famine
The UK government must reverse its decision to halt aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) or it will be complicit in famine, says the Scottish Greens external affairs spokesperson, Ross Greer MSP.
The call follows a warning from the UNRWA that if funding is not resumed, the agency would not be able to continue its life-saving operations beyond the end of February.
Michael Fakhri, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, has said that without UNRWA support, the prospect of famine in Gaza will go from being imminent to being inevitable.
Mr Greer said: “The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is horrific and is getting worse by the day. Cutting life-saving aid will add a totally avoidable famine to the atrocities inflicted on the Palestinian people. UN aid is a vital lifeline. Cutting it is collective punishment, a war crime which will result in millions of innocent people suffering because of the alleged crimes of a handful of individuals.
“A ceasefire is more vital than ever. The International Court of Justice, the highest court in the world, has ordered Israel to take immediate action to prevent genocide. Cutting aid flies in the face of that judgement.
“Israeli forces are committing war crimes in full view of the world. They have killed 13,000 Palestinian children and wounded and traumatised far more. And they have done so knowing that they can rely on the uncritical support of the UK, the US and other governments who have armed, funded and protected them every step of the way.
“Unless Rishi Sunak reverses this cruel decision, he and his government will be complicit in the starvation of the people of Gaza.”