Rome, 29 October 2024 - Un Ponte Per expresses dismay, concern and alarm at the approval by the Knesset - the Israeli Parliament - of two bills that ban UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, and decree the closure of its Jerusalem office.

These laws will further amplify the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, a catastrophe that is gradually spreading to all the occupied territories of the West Bank. This is a veritable demolition of International Law, which Israel must also abide by, and an attack on the already dramatic living conditions of the Palestinian population, which would thus be deprived of fundamental services - including the right to education of 700,000 boys and girls - by an agency that the entire international community wanted to support Palestinian refugees.

It does not escape us how the banning of UNRWA is part of the UN delegitimisation project systematically carried out by the Israeli government, with the decision to declare Secretary General Gutierrez "persona non grata", or to disregard the rulings and decisions of the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, to the decision to open fire, repeatedly and deliberately, against the structures and personnel of the UNIFIL mission's Blue Helmets in Lebanon.

The population of Gaza is dying under the bombs, but also from hunger, thirst and curable diseases due to the deprivation of basic medicines. In Gaza, as in all occupied Palestinian territories, winter is coming, and a large part of the population has no possibility of safe shelter and refreshment.

We make an urgent appeal to the Italian and EU governments to act on the Israeli authorities to demand the revocation of UNRWA's ban also through the adoption of effective sanctions and the suspension, applying Article 2 of the Treaty, of the EU-Israel Association Agreement.

We call on the public to continue to support the Palestinian and Lebanese population also through our two solidarity campaigns: 'Water for Gaza' and 'Lebanon Emergency'.We call on the international peace and solidarity movement to continue and strengthen the mobilisation against war and genocide and for an immediate ceasefire.