Canada Refuses to Cut UNRWA Funding By Michael Freund, International Affairs Correspondent Arutz-7 Israel National News, October 25, 2004
www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=70964 The Canadian government has announced that it will continue to fund the work of UNRWA (the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees) despite an admission earlier this month by the organization's commissioner-general that members of the Hamas terrorist group were employed by his agency. "Canada has no plans to discontinue its contributions", Canadian foreign affairs spokesman Marie Christine Lilkoff told the Canadian Jewish News in its latest issue, in effect rebuffing calls by various Jewish groups to suspend financial aid to the UN-run organization. UNRWA head Peter Hansen caused a stir in early October when he told a television reporter from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that, "I am sure there are Hamas members on the UNRWA payroll. And I don't see that as a crime." The remarks placed the Canadian government in an uncomfortable position, as they had previously outlawed Hamas for its terrorist activities. Hence, by supporting UNRWA, Ottawa might indirectly be assisting Hamas as well. In response to Hansen's statement, B'nai Brith Canada called on the Canadian government "to withhold immediately any payments to UNRWA until there can be absolute assurances that contributions from Canadian citizens will never be used to support terrorist operatives." Canadian officials reportedly raised the issue with Hansen, and were apparently mollified by his assurances that he had been referring to his employees' "political sympathies, not membership" in Hamas in his televised interview. Hansen also asserted that UNRWA "is not in the business of employing terrorists." As a result, the Canadians have now decided not to suspend or discontinue their funding of the organization. Canada contributes about $10 million annually to UNRWA, which represents approximately 5% of the organization's yearly budget. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> $9.95 domain names from Yahoo!. Register anything. http://us.click.yahoo.com/J8kdrA/y20IAA/yQLSAA/TySplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
