Eduardo González
Yesterday, King Felipe VI received the commissioner general of the United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Middle East (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, at the Zarzuela Palace, one day after the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, personally informed him that Spain will make a new contribution of twenty million euros to finance the work of this organization in food, educational and health matters.
Philippe Lazzarini went to the La Zarzuela Palace accompanied by the Secretary of State for Foreign and Global Affairs, Diego Martínez Belío, and the head of the Department of External Relations of the United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Middle East, Paz Fernández Herrero , as reported by the Royal House.
Likewise, the commissioner general of UNRWA was received by the second vice president and minister of Labor and Social Economy, Yolanda Díaz, who expressed her support and recognition “for the commendable work of UNRWA in the Gaza Strip” and showed her satisfaction. for the latest contributions from the Government, which have allowed Spain to become “one of the agency’s main donors.”
Lazzarini held a meeting the day before with Albares at the ministerial headquarters of the Viana Palace in Madrid. During the subsequent press conference, the minister warned that the work of UNRWA is “irreplaceable” and, in the current context of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, it is “a matter literally of life or death for the more than two million people that live there”.
For this reason, he recalled that the Council of Ministers approved this past Tuesday a first contribution from the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) of 3.5 million euros for UNRWA, which “will be in the UNRWA bank account in the coming days”, and announced a new contribution of 20 million euros to support the organization “in its crucial humanitarian work in Gaza and address the food, educational and health needs of almost six million Palestinian refugees in the region.” These twenty million will be “unconditional” and the delivery “will not be in several payments, but will be in a single payment,” he added.
For his part, Lazzarini highlighted that the new contribution of 20 million euros represents “a clear message to other countries so that they are aware of the indispensable work carried out by UNRWA and return to contribute to the agency”, in reference to the 16 States. who have decided to freeze their contributions to UNRWA after a dozen employees (out of a workforce of 30,000) have been accused of having participated in the Hamas attacks of October 7, a matter, he assured, in which the agency It acted “immediately” and is in the hands of an independent investigative commission led by New York staff that will report its conclusions directly to the UN Secretary General, António Guterres.
For almost seven decades, UNRWA has been responsible for guaranteeing access to education, health, humanitarian aid and social services to the 5.9 million Palestinian refugees (almost a quarter of the world’s refugee population) hosted in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (the Gaza Strip and the West Bank). To carry out its work, UNRWA is financed almost entirely by voluntary contributions from UN Member States. For its part, the Spanish UNRWA Committee’s main objectives are to give visibility to the situation of Palestine refugees and mobilize both citizens and public and private institutions to help them.
