Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said yesterday that the United Nations has failed to resolve international conflicts and harshly criticised Israeli actions in Gaza.
“Israel’s behaviour has no explanation: with the pretext of fighting Hamas, it is killing women and children,” he said after a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi.
Speaking later to the Arab League, Lula said Brazil had condemned the Hamas attack on Israeli civilians on October 7, but he added that Israel’s response was “disproportional and indiscriminate” and unacceptable.
Lula said there would not be peace without the establishment of a Palestinian state and called for an immediate ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.
“The killing must be stopped,” he said.
The Brazilian leader said Palestine should be recognised as a sovereign state and admitted to the United Nations as a full member, and he called for reform of the UN Security Council.
“The multilateral institutions that were created to help solve these problems do not work, which is why Brazil is committed to making the necessary changes in global governance bodies, and we hope to count on Egypt’s support,” he said to reporters alongside Sisi.
Lula said the permanent Security Council should be expanded and its veto powers abolished. “It is the permanent members of the Security Council that foment wars,” he said.
Brazil has supported South Africa’s case brought before the International Court of Justice against the Israeli military campaign in Gaza, he added.
The leftist president, who’s on his third non-consecutive term, also announced his government will make a new contribution to the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), which is facing a cash crunch after Israel alleged that 12 of its 13,000 staff in Gaza were involved in the October 7 attack.
“The recent allegations against the agency’s staff need to be properly investigated, but they cannot paralyse it,” he said, calling other countries “to maintain and increase their contributions.”
Meanwhile, the UNRWA yesterday said the cash crunch it is facing next month will get far worse in April if it cannot secure fresh funding or convince donors to resume suspended contributions.
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini was speaking in Dublin, where Ireland announced 20 million euros in support for the agency and urged countries that have suspended funding to “urgently rescind that decision” and resume and expand their support.
“Our operation will start to be compromised as from March but April will be really the month where we will be under deep, deep, deep negative cashflow,” Lazzarini told a news conference, describing the agency as being under an “existential threat”.
Negative cashflow is when an organisation has more money outgoing than incoming, impacting its ability to sustain itself.
Lazzarini has held extensive consultations with donors, including a trip to Gulf countries and Brussels, in recent days to try to plug UNRWA’s funding shortfall of some $440m. Some UNRWA donors, such as the US and Britain, have indicated they will not resume support until the UN’s internal investigation into the allegations ends. A preliminary report is due to be published in the next several weeks.
Lazzarini said the UN would share some observations with member states on its investigation within four weeks.
“At such a dangerous moment, it would be inconceivable to let UNRWA collapse,” Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said. “People need to wake up internationally about this.”
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