#WTH Why won't Congress cut off UNRWA?

Members are debating subsidizing Hamas, right now

At least 13 employees of the United Nations Relief Works for Palestine (UNRWA) joined the October 7 attacks in Israel. Several thousand other UNWRA employees celebrated the attacks on WhatsApp and Telegram groups. Israeli intelligence estimates that up to 10 percent of UNRWA’s 12,000 employees are members of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad. UNWatch.org documents UNRWA employees’ explicit support for terrorism extensively here.

The evidence presented by the Israelis was conclusive enough that the United States and 18 other countries suspended donations to UNRWA. Of course, the US cutoff was purely symbolic: Of the amounts appropriated by Congress for UNRWA, the Department of State had already disbursed $121 million, leaving only $300,000 in the account.

Still, several Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) members were dismissed by the United Nations. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also announced an investigation of UNRWA — although it has quickly become clear that even that good faith signal is empty. Guterres’ “independent review” is headed by individuals and groups that have already chosen sides. As Brett Schaefer and Victoria Coates write:

Just this week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also appointed former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna to head an independent review group to look into whether UNRWA “is doing everything within its power to ensure neutrality and to respond to allegations of serious breaches that have been made.”

Unfortunately, Colonna has previously revealed her predisposition. On January 12, she sent UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini her “full renewed support for your work, more useful than ever.” Two of the organizations in the review group, the Danish Institute for Human Rights and the Norwegian Chr. Michelsen Institute expressed support for the South African case of genocide against Israel in the International Court of Justice.

So, the UN is not going to police its own; no surprise. And most of the aid suspensions by the likes of Germany, France and others will not withstand pressure from the UN and the Hamas/PIJ supporters peopling Europe’s left-wing parties. In truth, however, their support matters far less than the United States’.

UNRWA’s intake in 2023 was close to $1.5 billion, funded mostly by voluntary contributions and the United Nations itself. But it is the United States that has coughed up the lion’s share of the agency’s budget over the years, $7.1 billion since 1950.

Where does this money come from in the US budget? Congress. This year, there is no UNRWA-specific appropriation, with most of the money coming out of the chunk of change appropriated for the State Department’s Migration and Refugee Account (administered by the PRM — the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration) and various other spigots at State and USAID. But there are UNRWA-specific limitations on aid, including required certifications UNRWA is not supporting terrorism, teaching terrorism, and a myriad of other related certifications that are clearly being observed in the breach by the Executive Branch.

UNRWA has been in violation of several of these congressional restrictions at every moment in its checkered history. Even a cursory survey provides ample evidence that UNRWA schools teach a Salafi curriculum, promoting jihad and antisemitism. UNRWA schools have been used by militant groups to stage attacks. UNRWA facilities around the Middle East have become havens for jihadists.

At this very moment, House and Senate negotiators on the State and Foreign Operations Appropriations bill that will fund UNRWA (and much, much more) are grappling with the question of legislating an UNRWA funding cut-off. Once staff complete their work, the chairs and ranking members of the relevant committees —Senators Chris Coons (D-DE) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) and Barbara Lee (D-CA) will decide the remaining issues. That this is even a matter of debate is incredible… Congress generally balks at subsidizing terrorism.

UNRWA partisans — including in the State Department’s own PRM bureau — insist it is the only mechanism for supporting Palestinian needs. (UNRWA’s case is helped by the fact that the current Deputy Assistant Secretary in the PRM bureau was UNWRA’s flack in Washington.) But the argument is rank rubbish. The UN High Commission for Refugees supports refugee populations in every part of the world… except the Palestinians. They and other U.N. humanitarian organizations like the World Food Program often deploy on short timelines in dangerous circumstances in response to crises. It is ridiculous to think that they could not respond to Gaza if needed. Then there are innumerable NGOs capable of providing food and support for other basic needs and they frequently work in tandem with the U.N.

UNRWA is not indispensable; UNRWA is a terrorist facilitator, explicitly named by Hamas itself as an enabler of Hamas’s focus on terrorism over governance in Gaza.

It is too often the case that the United States looks aside as terrorism flourishes. There is a shameful record of indifference over Iran, Syria, Afghanistan and so much more. But there, the United States has looked away, and failed to act. In the case of UNRWA, the U.S. supported UNRWA despite its manifest flaws. The result was a compromised organization whose employees cheer – even participate in – terrorism. A choice to renew funding for UNRWA is a choice to subsidize terrorist acts, terrorist teaching, and terrorists themselves. Unconscionable.