Republican lawmakers propose bill to block US aid to UNRWA
JNS
July 29, 2021
The legislation was introduced in the House of Representatives on
Tuesday by Representative Chip Roy and co-sponsored by 28 Republican
members of Congress, and in the Senate by Senator Jim Risch, ranking
member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on the same day with
12 Republican co-sponsors.
Israel's ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan has spoken about the problems with UNRWA and has urged the Biden administration not to restore its funding, which was eliminated during the administration of former President Donald Trump.
"Israel strongly opposes renewing funding for UNRWA, an antisemitic agency that incites against Israel and uses a twisted definition of who is a 'refugee,'" Erdan tweeted. "Rather than solving the conflict, UNRWA perpetuates it. Any return to funding it must be contingent on essential reforms."
The release cited examples of UNRWA's entanglement with terrorist organizations, such as the April 2017 resignation of an UNRWA teacher and chairman of the UNRWA Employees Union in Gaza amid allegations that he had been elected to a leadership position in Hamas and the October 2017 report of Hamas tunnels under UNRWA schools in the Gaza Strip.
"US taxpayer dollars should never go to a corrupt entity that undermines, Israel, one of our greatest allies and closest friends," Roy said in the release. "UNRWA has a long track record of using educational materials that promote antisemitism, violence and terrorism while maintaining ties to the terrorist organization Hamas. Because of this, UNRWA is an obstacle to peace whose flawed mandate perpetuates the Palestinian 'refugee crisis' by using a nonsensical definition of a refugee.
Idaho Senator Jim Risch
Risch explained that "when UNRWA was created, its specific purpose was to provide relief for refugees of the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict. More than 70 years later, the organization has employed individuals affiliated with Hamas, a US designated foreign terrorist organization and its schools have been used to promote antisemitism and store Hamas weapons.
"It is unacceptable that US taxpayer dollars are being used to fund this agency, which is why I've introduced legislation to cease US contributions to UNRWA unless the administration can certify without a doubt that the agency has no affiliation with US designation FTOs and does not support antisemitic rhetoric."
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