UNRWA is a pro-Palestinian money pit into which the U.S. poured 7 billion dollars (about 22 dollars per person in the U.S.) over almost 70 years before President Donald Trump cut all funding in 2018.

Joe Biden restored UNRWA funding last year, reopening the flow of taxpayer funding to this anti-Israel hate machine despite Israel’s strong opposition. Thankfully, a commonsense bill in Congress would slash to zero U.S. funding for UNRWA unless it implements crucial reforms.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member James Risch (R-ID) and Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) have sponsored a bill designed to BLOCK Joe Biden from sending UNRWA any more money until and unless the agency stops partnering with terror organizations and stops poisoning Palestinian children with anti-Israel propaganda.

"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 said in a statement to the press.

"It is unthinkable that U.S. taxpayer dollars would be used to help fund such an organization,” Risch added. “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."

“UNRWA is a hopelessly antisemitic and terrorist-enabling organization,” says Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). “The Biden Administration rejoined the organization anyway and promised to reform it. Now the numbers are in, and it is absolutely undeniable that they failed.”

“Of course,” Cruz continued, “they’re trying to deny the failure and continue funding UNRWA anyway, because they are committed to undermining Israel and elevating its enemies. It is well past time for the United States to withdraw its support from this broken organization.”

Commissioned in 1949 to resolve the Palestinian refugee crisis, UNRWA has managed, instead, to grow the crisis from some 726,000 Arab refugees in 1949 to 5.7 million alleged refugees today. The true number of still-living Arab refugees from the 1948 Arab war on Israel at its independence is less than 200,000, possibly as few as 30,000.

But UNRWA has exploded that number by redefining “refugee” to include all the descendants of those originally displaced in 1948.

Corrupt and bloated, UNRWA has some 30,000 employees, an 800 million-dollar budget, and a network of 58 refugee camps — think two-story stone block houses with running water and electricity, not the original blue U.N. tents.

A vast social welfare bureaucracy, UNRWA “supports anti-Israel propaganda, perpetuates the plight of Palestinian refugees and encourages hate,” as Israel’s then-Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon charged in 2018.

UNRWA schools are notorious for poisoning generations of Palestinian students with venomous anti-Israel lies. A report released in February 2021 showed that “UNRWA-produced content contained blatant antisemitism, incitement to jihad and martyrdom, and delegitimization of Israel.”

Despite this, Joe Biden is rewarding this anti-Israel organization with millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars — at least 150 million last year alone. The funding decision was made over Israel’s strong opposition.

Thankfully, Republicans in Congress have introduced a measure to slash all aid to UNRWA unless the agency first implements a series of reforms, including:

• Ending the teaching of hate for Israel in UNRWA’s 700 schools.

• Ensuring that no UNRWA employee is a member of Hamas or Hezbollah.

• Eliminating all anti-American, anti-Israel, and antisemitic rhetoric.

• Submitting to a comprehensive financial audit.

Don’t let Joe Biden use YOUR tax money to fund Palestinian hate and terror! Sign our petition and/or fax Congress today!

We need your generous support like never before. The anti-Israel Biden administration, along with rising antisemitism around the world, has made CIDI’s job more difficult and more important than ever.

We cannot do this important work without YOU. Please stand with us to bless Israel by giving generously today. Make a gift to defend Israel! Select here.

Mat Staver
Chairman
Christians in Defense of Israel

Sources:

Hirsch, Maurice. “US Aid to the Palestinians Increases Violence and Terror, Not Peace PMW Analysis.” PMW, March 13, 2023. Palwatch.org/page/32892.

Kredo, Adam. “After $150 Million Boost from Biden, UN Agency Cited for Inciting Violence against Jews.” The Washington Free Beacon, July 13, 2022. Freebeacon.com/national-security/after-150-million-boost-from-biden-un-agency-cited-for-inciting-violence-against-jews/.

Kredo, Adam. “Congress Wants to Defund the U.N.’s Anti-Semitic Palestinian Refugee Agency.” The Washington Free Beacon, February 24, 2023. Freebeacon.com/national-security/congress-wants-to-defund-the-u-n-s-anti-semitic-palestinian-refugee-agency/.