The current left-wing government still insists on funding the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), but where the aid actually ends up has been shown in videos circulating on social media. “The Gaza you won’t see on TV,” the video’s author wrote. Slovenian European Commissioner Janez Lenarčič also agreed that there is no alternative to this agency.
A video posted on social network X by journalist David Atherton shows the truth about where humanitarian aid, which was funded by many countries until recently, ends up, and which Slovenia, thanks to a left-wing government, continues to fund today.
“Your taxes working hard in Gaza. The UN humanitarian aid, including food and nappies, is being openly sold on the streets,” wrote journalist David Atherton. The video he published on X shows that all the food and other aid intended as free aid is being sold on the market.
His is not the only video showing the reality of the situation in Gaza – a similar video has been circulating on social media showing “humanitarian aid, including food donations to the people of Gaza, ending up on the streets of Gaza, where it is sold at inflated prices. Among the items ending up on the black market are aid tents and food. Aid tents were supposed to be distributed free of charge among displaced Palestinians, but instead, they are being sold for thousands of shekels,” Professor Simon Mercieca wrote on his blog.
“Among the foodstuffs sold on the black market in the south of Gaza are chocolate and frozen chicken. A large shipment of frozen chicken has arrived in Gaza. This was part of the ‘humanitarian aid’ sent to the people of besieged Gaza. Without refrigeration, they were sold on the black market in Gaza for NIS 65 (USD 18) per unit. In some places, the price reached as high as NIS 80 (USD 22),” reads the caption above the video, and the same applies to well-known brands of chocolates, as someone wrote that chocolate brands including Nestle and Mars, who have been subjected to activist boycotts for selling their products in Israel, are also being sold on the streets of Gaza to Palestinians. And they are being sold despite being part of humanitarian aid packages.
“Hamas controls the UNRWA, which means that most of the humanitarian aid that comes into Gaza ends up in the hands of Hamas. That is why we see humanitarian aid being sold instead of being shared in the markets,” read one of the comments on X.
Slovenia remains on the list of those funding the organisation whose members took part in the terrorist massacre committed by Hamas on the 7th of October. On the 22nd of February, Slovenia adopted a decision at a regular session to make a financial contribution of 500,000 euros to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, the government’s website read.
Lenarčič: there is no alternative
On Wednesday, the left-dominated European Parliament called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, believing that the suffering of Palestinian civilians must end and calling for the release of hostages. Several MEPs also stressed the importance of funding the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), with Slovenian Commissioner Janez Lenarčič agreeing that there is no alternative to UNRWA. The Commissioner was one of the first to call on European Union countries not to stop funding Palestine immediately after the massacre on the 7th of October 2023. Now, he has gone one step further and, alongside the Slovenian government, is actively calling for funding for a UN agency whose links with Islamic terrorism have been clearly proven by Israel.
Ž. K.
