Labor’s longest serving foreign minister, Gareth Evans, has urged the Australian government to “get off the fence” and immediately reinstate funding to a key UN agency to help avert mass starvation in Gaza.
The Labor government is edging closer to unfreezing $6m in emergency funding for UNRWA after similar moves by Canada and Sweden, possibly within days, but it is understood a decision has yet to be made.
Australia was among more than a dozen donor countries to suspend funding to the agency in late January, after the Israeli government alleged that 12 UNRWA staff members were involved in the 7 October Hamas-led attacks on Israel.
Evans, who was foreign minister from 1988 to 1996 and remains influential within the Labor party, said the case for joining with Canada and Sweden in resuming funding immediately was “unequivocal”.
He said UNRWA had a “critical, indispensable and irreplaceable” role in addressing the “catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza”.
The agency’s staffers were “experienced, capable, committed” and were “exposed to enormous risk in carrying out their role, with over 150 already reported killed”.
“The Australian government’s response to the charges against UNRWA has been measured and cautious, and its wanting to wait for the outcome of the UN inquiry understandable,” Evans told Guardian Australia.
“But with all the other horrors of the Gaza war now compounded by the prospect of mass starvation, and the available evidence of fault by UNRWA being as slight as it is, it’s time for us to get off the fence, and fast.”
Evans said there seemed to be “no evidence that more than a tiny handful” of UNRWA’s 13,000 staff “were involved in the October 7 outrage”.
“Nor does there seem to be any evidence whatever of default, let alone complicity, by UNRWA’s leadership in that happening, any more than Israel can be blamed for its own annual vetting of all UNRWA Gaza employees failing to identify those now accused of terrorism,” he said.
The Australian government has repeatedly characterised the allegations as “grave” and has sought “a clear commitment” that UNRWA would heed recommendations from multiple investigations into the matter.
Australia also called on Israel to share the underlying evidence against UNRWA staff.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said civilians in Gaza were “suffering terribly” and “we are taking advice on what further support we can give”.
Speaking to ABC Radio Canberra on Monday, Albanese said his government was considering “the range of support that can be given, including through other forms as well, in terms of essential food and life-saving delivery”.
The “temporary” pause affected $6m in top-up funding that the foreign minister, Penny Wong, had announced in mid-January, not the $20m in Australia’s core funding for the 2023-24 financial year that was delivered prior to the accusations.
Labor MPs report receiving calls and messages from people demanding the funding be reinstated, with some constituents seemingly unaware Australia had doubled annual funding for UNRWA since the change of government.
The deputy leader of the Greens, Mehreen Faruqi, ratcheted up pressure on the government over the issue, asking: “How many more horrifying images of famine-like conditions and starved Palestinians does the Labor government need to see to restore life-saving funding to UNRWA?”
The Labor backbencher Julian Hill said it was “simply untrue” to claim Australia had cut funding from UNRWA.
Hill said he would “expect to see the budgeted extra $6m paid now that the concerns of like-minded countries are being resolved”. He said domestic politics “should not distract from the real issue which is Israel’s refusal to let enough food in to Gaza”.
“The situation is dire but, to be frank, even if Australia provided a bazillion dollars tomorrow it would make little difference,” Hill told Guardian Australia.
“People are starving to death just kilometres away from fully stocked supermarkets or stranded trucks of food and only Israel has the power to act.”
Israel has blamed the UN for delivery issues, saying limitations on the quantity and pace of aid are dependent on the capacity of the UN and other agencies.
Western Australian Labor senator Fatima Payman said she supported “any additional assistance the global community can provide to help the innocent Palestinian people who are suffering” from an “horrific” humanitarian situation.
Payman said she supported reinstating the $6m in top-up funding to UNRWA “if Australia’s concerns have been appropriately addressed”. She said Australia also continued to advocate “for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire as that is what will make the biggest difference”.
The Israeli embassy in Canberra was contacted for comment on the possibility of Australia resuming funding to UNRWA, but pointed to a recent statement accusing Canada and Sweden of making “a serious mistake” by “continuing to ignore the involvement of UNRWA employees in terrorist activity”.
An Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson, Lior Haiat, said UNRWA was “part of the problem and will not be part of the solution in the Gaza Strip”.
