Ottawa has announced additional humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack against Israel and subsequent retaliation, while addressing fears the aid could be diverted to fund terrorist activities.
Hamas has been de facto ruling the Gaza Strip since taking over in 2007.
Ottawa provides approximately $55 million annually to “help meet the development and humanitarian needs of vulnerable Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza,” Global Affairs Canada (GAC) spokesperson Charlotte MacLeod told The Epoch Times by email. The funding is split between $20 million for development aid and $35 million for humanitarian assistance, she said.
The West Bank is ruled by the political party Fatah, a Hamas rival, and is not connected by land to the Gaza Strip.
The development assistance envelope goes toward the funding of different organizations, Ms. MacLeod said, such as Canadian Lutheran World Relief, Catholic Relief Services, Cowater International, Mercy Corps, UN Women, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and Right to Play.
GAC says the organizations’ programs provide support in various ways, including “addressing sexual and gender-based violence against women and girls.”
Other programs also support small farmers and herders with equipment, tools, and training.
UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees
Some federal funding for Palestinians has come under criticism in recent years.The federal government previously acknowledged that UNRWA produced anti-Israel educational materials, which goes against UN guidelines.
Ms. Gould said that following the criticism, UNRWA had taken corrective actions and that she had instructed Canadian officials to investigate what happened.
GAC was contacted on this matter and said it “remains closely engaged with UNRWA on neutrality and other issues.”
“UNRWA undertook a full review of the allegations and found instances where UNRWA’s logo had been affixed to unauthorized learning materials posted on multiple platforms,” GAC spokesperson Geneviève Tremblay told The Epoch Times by email.
She added that the agency sent cease-and-desist letters to the involved parties and developed preventive steps to prevent such occurrences in the future.
It says that “textbooks, exams, problem sets, and teachers’ guides used by Palestinian schools, including those operated by UNRWA, contain content that glorifies terrorism, normalizes violence against Israeli civilians, promotes a one-state solution, erases the existing Israeli state, denies Jewish indigeneity to the land of Israel and uses classic antisemitic tropes to unduly villainize Jewish Israelis.”
The Epoch Times reached out to UNRWA but didn’t immediately hear back.
B’nai Brith research manager Rich Robertson told The Epoch Times his organization wants to see federal funding for UNRWA cease immediately and wants the government to conduct a forensic audit to see what part of the funding is going toward the textbooks.
“The reason why we find the textbooks so problematic is that in order for there to be peace in the Middle East, a two-state solution, both the next generation of Israelis and Palestinians need to be taught to respect each other,” said Mr. Robertson.
‘Full Review’
In reacting to Ottawa’s latest funding announcement, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said more oversight is needed.“One of my first actions as prime minister will be to carry out a full review of every dollar we send out of this country, to make sure that we stop giving money to terrorists, dictators, and useless Marxist international bureaucracies,” he said on Oct. 13 when asked by reporters whether he would end funding for UNRWA if his party formed government.
Those groups, which include Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), are considered terrorist organizations by the Canadian government. Providing support to these entities is punishable under the Criminal Code.
Hamas is funded by multiple sources, including the Islamic Republic of Iran, charities, business investments, and donations, some of which are made via cryptocurrency.
Its last bout with Israel was in May 2021, when Hamas and PIJ launched over 4,000 rockets, killing more than a dozen Israelis. At least 260 people were killed in Gaza during 11 days of fighting including some by stray Palestinian militant rockets.
The most recent attack also included thousands of rockets but was more sophisticated, with a breach of the security fence and massacres of civilians conducted by Hamas commandos.
Israel has responded by imposing a full blockade on Gaza, bombarding Hamas targets in the enclave, and preparing for a ground invasion.
