Dem lawmakers launch effort to restart funding for Hamas dominated UN agency
Democrat lawmakers have introduced legislation to restore funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) after the US froze contributions to the agency over its close ties to Hamas.
Last year, the Biden administration stopped financing UNRWA after it was revealed that its employees had participated in the October 7th massacre of over 1,200 Israelis and the capture of 240 more. Congress prohibited funding until March 25, 2025, but President Trump signed an executive order in February extending the freeze indefinitely. US contributions to UNRWA, which totaled $370 million in 2023 alone, comprised roughly 30% of the agency’s funding.
On Thursday, 56 House Democrats introduced legislation to restart funding to UNRWA, the Daily Caller reported. The bill’s primary sponsors are Reps. André Carson (D-IN), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), and Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), and its cosponsors include Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Ayanna Presley (D-MA), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), and Summer Lee (D-PA). Reps. Carson, Jayapal, and Schakowsky had introduced similar legislation back in September.
The legislation came after a Senate companion bill was introduced on March 7th by Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) and co-sponsored by Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Tina Smith (D-MN), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), and Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
UNRWA: A vehicle for Islamic terror
In December, the New York Times reported that at least 24 senior UNRWA staff were recently discovered to be members of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) while acting as educators in UNRWA schools in Gaza.
Approximately 10% of UNRWA’s 13,000 Gazan employees are known to have ties to Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, with nearly half having relatives in the terror groups. Former UNRWA union chief Suhail al-Hindi occupies a senior leadership role in Hamas.
In August, the UN acknowledged the participation of at least nine UNRWA personnel in the October 7th massacre. They were eventually dismissed. In September, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) killed Fatah Sharif Abu al-Amin, a UNRWA employee who was serving as the head of Hamas in Lebanon. Two weeks earlier, the IDF had attacked a Hamas command center housed in a school in central Gaza. Among those killed were three Hamas operatives who were employed by UNRWA.
UNRWA’s involvement also extended to the abductions. Israeli hostages who were rescued from Gaza reported being held by a UNRWA employee. Another UNRWA employee was filmed carrying the dead body of an Israeli before bringing it to Gaza during the October 7th invasion.
Between UNRWA’s employment of terrorists and its success in ensuring the delivery of copious “humanitarian aid” — which falls directly under Hamas control — the UN has been one of the largest sponsors of terrorism in Israel. Although its title refers only to “Palestine,” the agency also operates in Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan with a $1.6 billion annual budget. This is in addition to assistance provided by the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR.
The US was the largest contributor to UNRWA until the Biden administration paused funding in January 2024.
UNRWA’s collaboration with Islamic extremist groups — mostly through schools and “humanitarian aid” — has been well documented for years but only received attention after October 7th. In 2004, then-UNRWA Commissioner-General Peter Hansen said: “Oh, I am sure that there are Hamas members on the UNRWA payroll, and I don’t see that as a crime.”
The UN has not only expressed no shame concerning its employment of terrorists but has even demanded immunity for the operatives. In a September letter, UN Director-General Antonio Guterres told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that “it’s impossible to separate UNRWA [including terrorists on its payroll] from the UN. It is an integral part of it."
The Israeli government has since cut ties with UNRWA and barred Guterres himself from entering the country, labeling him an “undesirable.”
