FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

B’nai Brith Canada applauds Harper government for redirection of aid from
UNRWA to specific projects

TORONTO, January 13, 2010 – B’nai Brith Canada has applauded the Government
of Canada for redirecting aid for which there was no accountability from
UNRWA, the UN agency that runs Palestinian refugee camps, to specific
institution-building projects in the Palestinian Authority (PA). The
funding will now go towards training Palestinian prosecutors, and towards
the Office of the Attorney-General, and the Public Prosecution Office.

“We are grateful that Canadians have a government that truly understands the
situation in Israel and the territories and has acted to redirect funding
from UNRWA to specific projects in the Palestinian Authority,” said Frank
Dimant, Executive Vice President of B’nai Brith Canada.
“Institution-building in the Palestinian territories is crucial for civil
society there to prosper and for a peace deal between the parties to become
truly feasible.

“For many years, we have been calling on the Canadian government to ensure
that the aid money we send to the PA is closely monitored and that the
process is transparent. Canadian funding of UNRWA has always been
problematic due to the fact that numerous reports spelled out the degree to
which Hamas and other Islamic terrorist organizations have infiltrated UNRWA
and diverted funding intended to benefit the Palestinian people. This new
directive from the Harper administration will ensure that the funding will
actually go to real and specific projects for which there will at last be
true accountability.”

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For more information, please contact, Dan Rabkin, Communications Officer:
416-633-6224 X 140 / cell: 416-312-9173

B’nai Brith Canada has been active in Canada since 1875 as the Jewish
community’s foremost human rights agency