GAZA (Palestine Foundation Information Center) The Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) have strongly denounced the Swedish government’s decision to end its funding for UNRWA.
“Sweden’s decision to stop funding UNRWA is a blatant alignment with the Israeli occupation’s plans to liquidate the Palestinian refugee question,” PFLP said in a statement on Friday.
PFLP also condemned the Swedish decision as a “flagrant bias in favor of the Zionist occupation’s schemes that aim to end the UN agency’s mission.”
PFLP called the Swedish government’s claim that the Israeli ban on UNRWA’s work makes its funding impossible as “an excuse worse than the sin,” pointing out that other European countries resumed their financial support for the agency despite the Israeli restrictions.
“This decision also lacks a logical foundation as there is no institution capable of managing relief operations in the Gaza Strip and providing vital services for the Palestinian refugees in their areas of residence other than UNRWA,” PFLP said.
PFLP called on the Swedish government to immediately retract such a “suspicious” decision and resume its commitment to its humanitarian and moral responsibilities towards the Palestinian refugees.
PFLP also called on progressive movements and supporters of the Palestinian cause in Sweden to take urgent action to confront the official policies adopted by the government that serve the Israeli occupation and to publicly debunk its motives in this regard.
For its part, PCHR warned that the Swedish decision to end its support for UNRWA directly affects the ability of the international agency to provide relief services for about six million Palestinian refugees, especially in the Gaza Strip — whose people have been facing an all-out genocide for over 14 months.
PCHR director Raji as-Surani expressed his belief that this Swedish decision is “politically motivated” and “aimed at serving the frenzied Israeli-led campaign to eliminate UNRWA and the Palestinian refugees’ right to return now and in the future.”
The Swedish government took such a step despite the UN General Assembly’s recent resolution expressing support for UNRWA and deploring a new Israeli law that would ban the UN agency’s operations in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. The resolution was adopted with 159 countries supporting it, 9 countries opposing it, and 11 countries abstaining.
