{"id":154072,"date":"2026-08-27T16:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T16:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/154072\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T16:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T16:02:10","slug":"finland-ends-funding-for-un-palestinian-refugee-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/154072\/","title":{"rendered":"Finland ends funding for UN Palestinian refugee agency"},"content":{"rendered":"

Finland will end its financial support for the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees when its current funding agreement expires, Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Ville Tavio of the Finns Party announced<\/a> on Thursday.<\/p>\n

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Tavio said he has not granted further funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, known as UNRWA.<\/p>\n

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Finland has provided the agency with \u20ac5 million a year under an agreement covering 2023 to 2026.<\/p>\n

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Tavio said funding for the Palestinian territories will continue through other organisations: \u201cThe level of funding will not decrease, but it will be provided through other channels, such as the World Food Programme\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Green League MP Inka Hopsu called for the decision to be reversed, arguing that other organisations cannot replace UNRWA\u2019s operations in Gaza and the surrounding region.<\/p>\n

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\u201cUNRWA has operated in Palestine for more than 75 years, and no other organisation, even within the UN, has the same experience, personnel on the ground, networks, range of operations or logistics in Palestine,\u201d Hopsu said in a Green League statement.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Hopsu said ending Finnish support would affect an organisation providing healthcare, water and shelter to Palestinians. UNRWA clinics in Gaza have recorded<\/a> 19.3 million visits since October 2023, while 800,000 people relied on its water assistance in July and 65,000 displaced people were living in its emergency shelters.<\/p>\n

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UNRWA provides education, healthcare, social services and humanitarian assistance to Palestinian refugees. The agency employs about 28,000 Palestinians.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Finland temporarily suspended payments<\/a> to UNRWA in January 2024 after Israel alleged that 12 agency employees had taken part in the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023. Several other donor countries also halted funding following the allegations.<\/p>\n

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At the time, that decision made by Tavio also prompted criticism from opposition politicians. Social Democratic Party MP Nasima Razmyar argued<\/a> that cutting UNRWA funding risked disrupting assistance to civilians in Gaza.<\/p>\n

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UNRWA dismissed the employees implicated in the allegations. Finland\u2019s Foreign Ministry said at the time that the claims required an independent investigation and that Finnish funds must not reach Hamas or other terrorist organisations.<\/p>\n

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Finland resumed its payments in March 2024 and continued to meet its commitments under the four-year agreement.<\/p>\n

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The agreement originated under the government of former prime minister Sanna Marin. It committed Finland to providing \u20ac5 million annually between 2023 and 2026.<\/p>\n

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UNRWA has faced funding and operational disputes since the start of Israel’s genocidal war against Gaza. Israel has accused the agency of links to Hamas and has prohibited UNRWA from operating on Israeli territory. UNRWA has said its services remain central to Palestinian refugees and to humanitarian operations.<\/p>\n

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The decision also comes two days after Israeli forces raided and seized UNRWA\u2019s Qalandiya Training Centre in Kafr Aqab in occupied East Jerusalem. Soldiers expelled UNRWA staff from the site, while Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir took part in the operation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Israel said the takeover complied with legislation that came into force last year banning UNRWA from operating in territory Israel considers its own and prohibiting Israeli state authorities from contact with the agency. Israel applies the law to East Jerusalem, which it captured from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war and later annexed in a move that most countries do not recognise.<\/p>\n

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UNRWA condemned<\/a> the raid as an unauthorised entry into a UN facility and said the centre is protected under international law.<\/p>\n

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HT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Finland will end its financial support for the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees when its current funding…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154073,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[87],"tags":[158,72578,2246,113,2064,72579,72577,62741,29004,41603],"class_list":["post-154072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-helsinki","tag-finland","tag-finnish-development-aid","tag-gaza","tag-helsinki","tag-humanitarian-aid","tag-palestine-reconstruction-fund","tag-palestinian-refugees","tag-unrwa","tag-ville-tavio","tag-wfp"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/117168318067693612","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}