Congress Wants to Defund the U.N.’s Anti-Semitic Palestinian Refugee Agency

Republicans in Congress are working for defunding the United Nations’ Palestinian refugee Agency. This agency allows terrorist groups access to weapons and distributes materials that promote Israel’s destruction.

Legislation that circulates in both the House and Senate will freeze more than Half a billion Dollars in U.S. taxpayer aid to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

The legislation—spearheaded by Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member James Risch (R., Idaho) and Rep. Chip Roy (R., Texas)—would block further resources to the group until the Biden administration can certify to Congress that UNRWA has implemented reforms that include cutting relations with terror groups and washing its educational materials of anti-Israel agitprop.

“UNRWA has a long history of employing people connected to terrorist movements like Hamas, promoting anti-Semitic textbooks, and using its schools to store Hamas weapons,” Risch stated in a statement to the Washington Free Beacon. “It is unthinkable that U.S. taxpayer dollars would be used to help fund such an organization. This legislation will cease U.S. contributions to UNRWA unless the administration certifies that the agency is not affiliated with U.S. designated foreign terrorist organizations and does not support anti-Semitic rhetoric.”

Although the legislation failed to pass last Congress’s Congress, it is expected to get broad Republican support in the House and Senate. However, the Biden administration will likely resist any attempts to disrupt its diplomatic relations with the Palestinian government.

The State Department approved $150 million of aid for the group by the Biden administration in 2021. determined UNRWA’s incitement to violence against Jews and the allowing of militant Palestinian armed groups to use its facilities was revealed in a report that Congress has not seen. These infractions are against funding guidelines and were frozen by the Trump administration. However, the Biden administration provided $680 million more in aid for the group in 2022. The group received $50 million in aid in 2023.

UNRWA has been a diplomatic flashpoint since its association with Palestinian terrorists. UNRWA’s educational resources—which are used to teach scores of Palestinian children—are routinely found to contain “material that encourages jihad, violence and martyrdom, promotes anti-Semitism, and promotes hate, intolerance, and lack of neutrality,” According An Israeli watchdog group.

The State Department must certify that UNRWA does not have terrorist ties in order to continue providing money to UNRWA.