EXCLUSIVE — A new congressional proposal would prohibit federal dollars from being directed to a Hamas-linked United Nations agency dishing out Palestinian aid.
The State Department revealed Friday it paused funding to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency and is reviewing allegations that 12 of the office’s employees may have participated in the Hamas-led Oct. 7 massacre of more than 1,200 people in the Jewish state of Israel. On the heels of multiple countries also halting aid to UNRWA, Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL) is introducing legislation Monday aiming to gut the office to the very core, according to a copy of the bill text obtained by the Washington Examiner.
Dubbed the “UNRWA Elimination Act,” the bill seeks “to establish the policy of the United States that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East should be disbanded completely” and to transfer UNRWA’s responsibilities to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees — a separate agency headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.
“No Federal funds are authorized to be appropriated or otherwise made available to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, including for the salaries or expenses of any employee of such Agency,” the ban provision in the bill outlines.
Mast’s bill, which comes after Republican senators put forth a similar one in December of last year, is the latest escalation of pressure on UNRWA due to its longstanding connections to terrorism and promotion of antisemitism. The Trump administration froze aid to UNRWA in 2018, though the Biden administration resumed support, culminating in at least $730 million flowing from the U.S. to the U.N. agency since 2021.
UNRWA, which was created in 1949 “to carry out direct relief and works programs for Palestine refugees,” “provides cover for terrorist activity and perpetuates the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” according to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank.
Members of Congress recently launched investigations into reports that the U.N. agency’s employees celebrated the Oct. 7 attack, with one agency teacher allegedly keeping an Israeli taken hostage that day “for almost 50 days in the attic of a house.”
The State Department’s statement on Friday about UNRWA said the agency “plays a critical role in providing lifesaving assistance to Palestinians, including essential food, medicine, shelter, and other vital humanitarian support.”
Internal documents obtained by the watchdog Protect the Public’s Trust show the Biden administration worried in 2021 that there was a “high risk” of Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist factions benefiting from restarting aid to Gaza.
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On Tuesday, the GOP-led House Foreign Affairs Committee’s oversight panel, which Mast chairs, will have a hearing on UNRWA and its “failures” to live up to its mission.
The subcommittee hearing will feature testimony from Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Executive Director Hillel Neuer for the group U.N. Watch, and Marcus Sheff, CEO of the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education.
