Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly has “reaffirmed” Canada’s commitment to funding the United Nations Relief and Work Agency after the organization revealed that it employed a chief Hamas official recently eliminated by Israel.
Joly faces criticism from foreign policy experts and Conservatives after the government’s official foreign affairs account on X posted that it will continue to support UNRWA, humanitarian access to the region, and Palestinian Authority reform efforts.
Fateh Sherif Abu el-Amin was the head of Hamas’ Lebanon branch who, according to the Israeli Defence Force, was responsible for obtaining weapons and recruits for Hamas in Lebanon. He was also the chair of UNRWA’s teachers union and a principal at the UNRWA-run Deir Yassin Secondary School in El-Buss, Lebanon, as confirmed by UNRWA.
However, the head of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, has denied knowing that its employee was a Hamas commander. UNRWA has also said that Abu el-Amin was suspended pending an investigation into his “political activities.”
“The specific allegation at the time was that he was part of the local leadership… I never heard the word commander before,” Lazzarini said in Geneva.
UNRWA, which delivers humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza and the Palestinian Authority, has been in the public eye for its connections to terrorism before.
In August, the United Nations fired nine UNRWA employees allegedly connected to the Oct. 7 terrorist attack, the deadliest attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust. In January, ten others were fired for their alleged connection to the Hamas-led attack as well. Despite all this, Canada stands firm in funding the UN organization.
Casey Babb, a senior fellow at the Macdonald Laurier Institute, responded on X, saying the move is bad timing as support for terrorism grows on Canadian streets. The Conservative foreign affairs critic Michael Chong criticized the Canadian government’s continued support of the organization as well.
“It is deeply troubling that while terror entities are attacking Israel on multiple fronts, the Trudeau government would go out of its way to resume sending tax dollars to an organization employing Hamas terrorists and whose facilities have supported terror activities,” Chong told True North in an email. “Conservatives cut funding to UNWRA when we were in government, and we warned against Trudeau’s irresponsible decision to restore it.”
When asked about Canada’s position on reports that Israel is preparing “limited ground operations inside Lebanon,” Trudeau declared his support for the people of Lebanon without noting Hezbollah’s role in the conflict.
“Canada is calling for a ceasefire immediately in Lebanon and indeed across the region. I spoke with the Prime Minister of Lebanon yesterday to impress upon him that Canada stands with the Lebanese people and with everyone in the region who wants to see an end to violence and conflict,” Trudeau said to reporters. “We need to see an end to the violence against civilians.”
Since Oct. 7, Israel has faced attacks from Hezbollah in Lebanon in Northern Israel, the Islamic regime in Iran, and terrorist threats from Hamas in Gaza and the Houthis in Yemen.
Both Joly and Trudeau have called for Israel, Hezbollah, and Hamas to negotiate a cease-fire. However, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs in Canada criticized the feds for lacking the same firmness when calling out the attacks on Israel from the listed terrorist entities.
“For months, CIJA has called on Canada to condemn the thousands of Hezbollah rockets fired at Israel since October 8th. Minister Joly was silent about aggression on Israel’s north until Israel finally retaliated – attacking a Canadian-listed terrorist entity and killing their leader,” CIJA wrote on X. “Canada’s selective condemnation is glaring, and the silence on Hezbollah’s attacks is deafening.”
David Cooper, the Vice President of Government Relations, at CIJA told True North that UNRWA has been infiltated by Hamas yet the Canadian government remains “silent.”
“There are other, ethical ways of getting humanitarian assistance to Palestinians. UNRWA is not one of them,” Cooper said in an email.
“The State of Palestine” a Palestinian contingent to the UN shared a clip from Joly’s speech to the UN where she stated that Israeli violence against “Palestinians by extremist settlers and the expansion of settlements into the West Bank” is unacceptable. The clip excludes a part immediately proceeding where Joly notes Hamas refuses to lay down its arms and return Israeli hostages.
Global Affairs Canada did not respond to True North’s request to comment before the deadline.