Has the Scottish government said it plans to ‘maintain funding’ for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees?

A widely shared post on social media claims that Scotland is among four nations that have “declared their intention” to continue donating to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA). 

This doesn’t give the full picture. The Scottish government has said it currently has no plans to provide any further support to the agency, although First Minister Humza Yousaf has denied that this amounts to support being “paused”.

Originally posted on X (formerly Twitter), and shared over 12,000 times on that platform, the post says: “The following countries have refused to endorse the ongoing Israeli-US-UK-German genocide in Gaza, and have declared their intention to maintain funding for UNRWA.”

It then lists Ireland, Scotland, Norway and Spain.

Screengrabs of the X post have also been circulating widely on Facebook. 

Is Scotland maintaining funding for the UNRWA? 

A number of countries, including the US and UK, have halted funding to UNRWA after claims by the Israeli government that staff working for the UN agency, which provides assistance for Palestinian refugees and runs schools, health services and refugee camps, were involved in the 7 October Hamas attacks on Israel.

UNRWA says it has sacked several of its employees in Gaza—of which it has around 13,000 in total—over the allegations and launched an investigation. 

The governments of Norway, Ireland and Spain have all publicly committed to maintain funding to UNRWA, with the Spanish government announcing it will give UNRWA an additional €3.5 million (around £3 million) in aid.

In November, the Scottish government said it had pledged £750,000 to a ‘flash appeal’ by UNRWA to support humanitarian efforts in Gaza since October 2023. This followed a donation from the Scottish government to UNRWA in 2014. 

But a statement from the Scottish government in January said that there were “no plans to provide further support to UNRWA at this stage”.

The First Minister of Scotland, Humza Yousaf subsequently said that this decision does not mean that Scotland has “paused” or “withdrawn” funding.

Mr Yousaf said on X on 28 January: “To be clear, @scotgov has not paused or withdrawn aid to @UNRWA.

“We have previously provided as much as we can within our financial constraints. We will always seek to do more where we can & urge others to continue to provide aid to the people of Gaza.”

When contacted by Full Fact on 5 February, the Scottish government confirmed that the statement it had issued in January remained its current position on support to the UN agency, and that there were no current plans to provide further funding.

We’ve checked a wide range of claims about the Israel-Gaza conflict, including miscaptioned videos and fake articles—you can find more of our work fact checking these claims here.

Image courtesy of James Stringer