A shameful decision. The Federal Council decided on Wednesday to split the pear in two and pay 10 million – or half of the sum advanced in 2023 – to UNRWA, the UN organization responsible for aid to the Palestinians.
“A real compromise in the Swiss spirit”, in the words of Vaudois PLR deputy Laurent Wehrli? We can rather see it as a new manifestation of the deleterious nature of Ignazio Cassis-style foreign policy, supported by a bourgeois bloc slavishly aligned with the United States and its pro-Israeli interests. Switzerland is one of the last countries to lift the suspension of its funding from UNRWA. Only the country of Uncle Sam, his British lackey and Italy in full neofascist drift maintain this freeze. Nothing to brag about.
This blocking of aid was carried out on a basis that was tenuous to say the least, as shown by the report drawn up under the presidency of the former French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Catherine Colonna. Accusations of collusion by UNRWA employees in the October 7 massacre have not been supported by any evidence. We will also recall that UNRWA has established that several of its employees were tortured by the Israeli army to make them confess to links with Hamas. The examination carried out under the leadership of the former French minister has, on the contrary, highlighted mechanisms aimed at guaranteeing the neutrality of the agency that are much more solid than those in use in other UN bodies.
Let’s make no mistake: the goal is to liquidate UNRWA. The head of the DFAE, Ignazio Cassis, does not even hide it. For him, the agency is part of the problem. “As long as Palestinians live in refugee camps, they want to return to their homeland. By supporting UNRWA, we are keeping the conflict alive,” he already declared in 2018. Let’s suppress the Palestinian people and we will solve the problem. The highest stage of cynicism.
The facts are stubborn. UNRWA is the only agency capable of coming to the aid of a martyred population. Some 30% of children under 2 suffer from acute malnutrition, according to the World Food Program. And 70% of the population in the north faces catastrophic famine.
Switzerland’s procrastination condemns hundreds, even thousands, of Palestinians to starvation and death. They are a form of complicity in gross violations of international law and elementary political morality. This baseness will not go unnoticed, it will not be forgotten.
#Swiss
