{"id":4327,"date":"2019-05-20T23:53:21","date_gmt":"2019-05-20T11:53:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/israelinstitute.nz\/?p=4327"},"modified":"2019-05-20T23:53:21","modified_gmt":"2019-05-20T11:53:21","slug":"israel-institute-says-new-zealand-taxpayers-are-funding-extremism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/israelinstitute.nz\/2019\/05\/israel-institute-says-new-zealand-taxpayers-are-funding-extremism\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel Institute says New Zealand taxpayers are funding extremism"},"content":{"rendered":"
Israel Institute of New Zealand co-director, Dr David Cumin, is calling for a moratorium on any further Kiwi taxpayer funding of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) until serious issues of corruption, antisemitism and extremism within that agency are resolved.<\/p>\n
UNRWA was established in 1949 and is the UN agency tasked with delivering relief and works programmes for Palestinian refugees. It is almost entirely funded by voluntary contributions from UN member States – including New Zealand, which recently committed a further $3 million to support core UNRWA programmes between 2019 and 2021.<\/p>\n
However, Dr Cumin is calling for this payment to be reversed and further funding withheld until serious issues within UNRWA are resolved.<\/p>\n
\u201cUNRWA doesn\u2019t work toward addressing the Palestine\/Israel conflict – it perpetuates it. UNRWA school textbooks have recently been found to display extreme anti-Israel and anti-Jewish sentiments; UNRWA staff have posted antisemitic material and supported terrorism on social media; and UNRWA schools have been used to store weapons for terror groups and as cover for the entries to terror tunnels\u201d.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Dr Cumin says that, despite these issues being well documented, the New Zealand government has never raised public concerns about any of them.<\/p>\n