Statement of the Chairperson of the AU Commission on Israeli legislation on UNRW

30 October 2024, Addis Ababa: The Chairperson of the African Union Commission H.E. Moussa Faki Mahamat expresses deepest concern at the adoption of two laws by the Israeli Parliament to ban the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in defiance of international law and which, if implemented, would prevent UN humanitarian assistance to Palestinian people under Israeli occupation and already under unprecedented and continued physical attack for the past year.

The Chairperson recalls the obligations and commitments of the State of Israel under international law, including the legal obligations of the State of Israel as a member of the United Nations, which mandated UNRWA's existence and operation since 1949, and all related international law and international humanitarian law, in particular the obligation to allow humanitarian relief for civilians in need.

In this regard, the Chairperson calls on urgent decisive action by the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council to reassert international law, which the State of Israel is bound by.