An Airbus A400M Atlas of the Belgian Air Force departed from the military airport in Melsbruck, Belgium, on March 4, carrying humanitarian supplies scheduled to be airlifted over Gaza.Eve Herman/Reuters
Lloyd Axworthy is Chair of the World Council on Refugees and Migrants and former Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs. Alain Locke is a member of the World Council for Refugees and Migrants and a former Canadian ambassador to the United Nations.
The United States is currently airlifting aid to the Gaza Strip. The country’s parachutes, like those of other participating countries, have brought only a fraction of the aid needed to the 2.2 million Palestinians trapped without food, water or medical supplies. Canada is also working on its own plan to airlift aid to the region. Like a placebo, this strategy may make us feel better temporarily. But this fancy exercise is woefully inadequate. In its cynical futility, it has become a metaphor, illustrating the international community’s abject failure to marshal a meaningful response to a huge humanitarian tragedy.
What is urgently needed, of course, is a ceasefire, the return of Israeli hostages held by Hamas since its horrific attack in southern Israel on October 7, and the return of hundreds of trucks needed in Gaza. It is a cease-fire combined with unimpeded access to supplies. every day. Negotiations aimed at achieving such an outcome are ongoing. But in the meantime, Canada and other countries cannot sit idly by. Our government can leverage Canada’s diplomatic skills by taking three urgent steps to persuade like-minded governments.
First, we must restore funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). The decision by Canada and at least 16 other countries to withhold funding from UNRWA comes in the wake of serious allegations by the Israeli government against 12 of UNRWA’s more than 13,000 staff in the Gaza Strip. UNRWA acted quickly to terminate the employment of nine of the accused personnel (of the remaining three, two are dead and one is missing). Israel has refused repeated requests to provide evidence to substantiate the allegations against UN investigators. While the allegations are deeply worrying, the withdrawal of funding from UNRWA, which has a devastating impact on the humanitarian situation across the region, is neither a proportionate nor an effective response.
We need to understand UNRWA’s role in Gaza. The vast majority of civilians in Gaza rely on direct aid from government agencies, and it is also a critical lifeline for other aid organizations operating in Gaza, distributing aid to aid infrastructure. In an open letter, a group of existing aid organizations including Oxfam, the Norwegian Refugee Council and Save the Children said: ”
The suspension of funding to UNRWA comes as Gaza faces a humanitarian crisis of unprecedented scale. More than 2 million people have been forced to evacuate, many with multiple evacuations. Most of the population has been evacuated within or near UNRWA facilities. They are on the verge of starvation. UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Michael Fakhri said defunding UNRWA was making hunger “inevitable”. The World Health Organization has warned that children are at high risk of dying from malnutrition, lack of clean water and deadly diseases. UNRWA’s logistics capabilities are essential in addressing hunger and health crises.
The European Commission has announced its intention to restore funding to UNRWA. Canada and other countries that have suspended aid must immediately do the same.
Our second proposal is for Canada and other middle powers to engage more actively and constructively in the region. We propose, for example, the creation of small-scale protection missions that would oversee access to and distribution of aid and provide protection to aid workers. Months of continuous bombing and repeated evacuations have undermined Gaza’s social order. At the same time, the Hamas-supervised Gaza police force has become a target for Israel and is no longer able to maintain order. This has contributed to the confusion and contributed to incidents like last week, when Israeli forces opened fire on people surrounding an aid truck. We propose a protection mission consisting of highly trained police officers from the state, acceptable to all parties, to safely transport and distribute relief supplies.
Third, we propose the creation of a Gaza Humanitarian and Reconstruction Contact Group consisting of several countries, including Jordan, which play an important role in the region. Canada will convene a contact group and take the lead on ensuring continued humanitarian access to Gaza. The contact group could also make financial and logistical commitments for the reconstruction of Gaza, given the scale of the destruction that has occurred.
Airdrops, like placebos, have little effect. But by taking his three practical and concrete steps we advocate, Canada and like-minded allies can meaningfully respond to humanitarian crises that appeal to the conscience of all of us. can.