On Tuesday, lawmakers rejected a motion from the Swiss People’s Party demanding an immediate suspension of funding. The government has been tasked with finding an alternative solution.
The Senate voted against the motion by 25 votes to 19 with one abstention. The motion also sought to ensure that the UN aid organisation receives no further financial contributions in future. This proposal is now off the table.
Instead, parliament referred another motion to the Federal Council. According to this motion, Switzerland should lobby the UN for a successor solution for UNRWA.
The Federal Council must examine alternatives – for example, whether Palestinian aid could be integrated into the UN refugee relief organisation UNHCR.
Translated from German with DeepL/mga
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
Popular Stories
More
Workplace Switzerland
Trump tariff shock: how Switzerland is positioning itself
What factors should be taken into account when inheriting Swiss citizenship abroad?
Should there be a limit to the passing on of Swiss citizenship? Or is the current practice too strict and it should still be possible to register after the age of 25?
Is your place of origin, your Heimatort, important to you?
Every Swiss citizen has a Heimatort, a place of origin, but many have never visited theirs. What’s your relationship with your Heimatort? What does it mean to you?
Switzerland postpones online platform scrutiny as US tensions rise
This content was published on
Switzerland has delayed regulating large online platforms such as Google, Facebook, YouTube and X while trade tensions are rising.
Swiss Rhône river region braces for possible flooding
This content was published on
A pre-alert for possible flooding has been announced for the Rhône river as some regions of Switzerland brace for bad weather.
Switzerland commits CHF250 million for humanitarian aid
This content was published on
Switzerland allocates CHF250m to the World Food Programme, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
This content was published on
Swiss electricity grid operator posts CHF103.8 million net profit, an increase of CHF3.8 million from 2023, boosted by higher tariffs.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.