(24 Apr 2024)
LEBANON UNRWA PROTEST
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
LENGTH: 1:14
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Beirut, Lebanon – 24 April 2024
1. Various of clergymen, some waving Palestinian flags, protesting in front of the headquarters of UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East
2. Protesters holding sings reading (English): "We refuse to punish UNRWA employees for their national affiliation"
3. Various of protest
4. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mahmoud al-Siddiq, Muslim cleric:
"We are here to speak up loudly about the importance of the existence of UNRWA and the importance of condemning the Zionist occupation. We stand by our people and our families in the homeland and in Gaza in particular. We are calling on the international community to support Palestinian refugees, recognize the right of return, and affirm the natural rights of Palestinian refugees."
5. Various of clerics protesting in front UNRWA
6. Sign reading (Arabic): "We call for an end to the Zionist terror on our people in Gaza"
7. Till-down form UNRWA building to clerics
STORYLINE:
Scores of Muslim clerics protested in Beirut on Wednesday outside the headquarters of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, expressing solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and condemning Israel’s war in the enclave.
The clerics said the U.N. agency known as UNRWA should continue helping Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
"We refuse to punish UNRWA employees for their national affiliation," read some of the signs at the protest, which featured many demonstrators waving Palestinian flags.
Israel has alleged that a dozen employees of the agency known as UNRWA had participated in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks when the militants stormed into southern Israel, killing over 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages.
An independent review of the neutrality of UNRWA released this week found that Israel never expressed concern about anyone on the staff lists it has received annually since 2011.
Israel’s allegations led to the suspension of contributions to UNRWA by the United States and more than a dozen other countries.
That amounted to a pause in funding worth about $450 million, according to the report released Monday, but a number of countries have resumed contributions.
"We are here to speak up loudly about the importance of the existence of UNRWA," said Mahmoud al-Siddiq, a Muslim cleric who took part in the protest in Beirut.
"We are calling on the international community to support Palestinian refugees," he added.
UNRWA is the biggest aid provider in Gaza, where Israel’s war has displaced the vast majority of the population within the besieged territory and plunged it into a humanitarian catastrophe.
On Wednesday, Germany said it plans to follow several other countries in resuming cooperation with UNRWA in Gaza after the publication of the independent review of its neutrality.
Israel’s military offensive in Gaza has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, around two-thirds of them children and women.
AP video shot by Fadi Tawil
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