The largest political party in the German federal legislature is calling for an end to financial support of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, the global body’s Palestinian aid organization, according to Jüdische Allgemeine, the country’s national Jewish weekly newspaper.
The Christian Democratic Union, led by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, unanimously approved a motion on Feb. 21 calling for stricter criteria for aid payments to the Palestinians, and an end to German and European donations to UNRWA.
The social services agency has come under increasing scrutiny following documentation that several of its staff participated in Hamas’s terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Critics have long accused the group of close ties to Gazan terror organizations.
The CDU motion would place German and European Union funding for the Palestinian Authority under stricter monitoring, with noncompliance triggering the automatic termination of payments.
Those conditions include halting the P.A.’s so-called pay-for-slay program, through which the P.A. pays salaries to terrorists who kill and maim Israelis, with increasing stipends based on the severity of the crime. The P.A. has stated that it is reforming the program, though Israel and other critics maintain that Ramallah continues the payments.
The motion also demands that P.A. school textbooks cease including antisemitic incitement and that entities carrying out projects in P.A. territory under German or EU funding pledge to recognize Israel and adhere to Germany’s zero-tolerance policy on antisemitism, including on social media.
The resolution would shift German and EU funding to other U.N. organizations that would assume UNRWA’s responsibilities.
“After 19 years of tyranny by the terrorist organization Hamas in the Gaza Strip, UNRWA is not part of the solution, but part of the problem. Nor can it be reformed,” stated Uwe Becker, a CDU politician involved in efforts to combat antisemitism.
Germany has already partially suspended funding for UNRWA in Gaza, though the EU as a whole remains a major donor.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar welcomed the CDU resolution, calling it “an act of moral clarity.”
Olga Deutsch, vice president at NGO Monitor, lauded the resolution for introducing “direct and predefined sanctions for violations” for the first time, “a clear acknowledgement that it is not statements but detailed frameworks for execution that truly bring about change.”
But there is no guarantee the motion will be implemented. The Social Democratic Party, which governs with the CDU in Germany, said as recently as last fall that support for UNRWA should continue.
