Israel Notifies U.N. That Cooperation with UNRWA Is Over, Biden Administration Objects
Israel will no longer cooperate with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), Foreign Ministry Director-General Jacob Blitshtein informed U.N. General Assembly President Philemon Yang. The Israeli Knesset passed legislation prohibiting UNRWA from operating in Israeli territory last Monday. “UNRWA — the organization whose employees participated in the October 7th massacre and many of whose employees are Hamas operatives — is part of the problem in the Gaza Strip and not part of the solution,” complained Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz.
With “all of the mass killing” on October 7, “there were some UNRWA leaders who were absolutely in the forefront of doing that,” said Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) during Monday’s “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins.” “The problem with UNRWA … has been around for decades. Two decades ago, I offered an amendment to defund them because they were — even then — a child soldier factory, where Hamas and other hate-filled organizations were teaching kids, from the earliest years, to hate and to loathe all Jews, and that the best Jew is a dead Jew.”
“The general proselytizing of hate has gone on for so long that you have an entire generation of children who have been turned into Jewish-haters,” Smith declared. “That’s supported by our tax dollars. … And they don’t like the United States either, so let’s put that on the ledger as well.”
Earlier this year, Smith introduced another bill to defund UNRWA “that would say clearly and unambiguously: ‘no money for UNRWA,’ and any organization that does get our funding for humanitarian purposes has to be properly vetted,” he said.
UNRWA is not the only U.N. refugee agency, but it is the only one dedicated to a single area and people, the anti-Jewish Palestinian territories. There, “they run the schools, but they teach them to hate,” said Family Research Council President Tony Perkins. Yet “the Biden administration has provided over $1 billion to UNRWA — that’s not to the United Nations; that’s just to UNRWA.”
“Trump cut off funding to UNRWA when he was the president,” Smith remarked. “He cut it off. He said, ‘Find an alternative.’ Biden reinstated it and paid back what the U.S. did not pay during that time.” Now, “Israel itself, in the Knesset, has moved to say, ‘No more UNRWA,’” he added.
And, “not surprisingly, the move has received criticism even from the U.S. government, the Biden administration,” Perkins observed. “They’re going to withhold military support munitions from Israel if they don’t allow this humanitarian aid through UNRWA.”
“We … were quite clear that we oppose that legislation, and we have serious concerns about the implications of it being fully implemented, as well as our concerns about the underlying humanitarian situation in Gaza, even before Israel passed this legislation,” said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller on Monday. “Right now, there is no other way to distribute aid in sufficient form, and that’s why the Secretary made clear in the letter that we were opposed to the legislation because UNRWA plays a critical role.”
“That’s not true,” Perkins protested. “That’s unmitigated nonsense,” Smith agreed. “There are non-governmental organizations that could be empowered and stood up very quickly to provide humanitarian aid to those who need it. … USAID is one alternative. There are a number of other alternatives, even Catholic Relief Services, and certainly Samaritan’s Purse, and other very, very well vetted humanitarian organizations could do the job.”
“Israel will continue to work with international partners, including other United Nations agencies, to ensure the facilitation of humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza in a way that does not undermine Israel’s security,” wrote Blitshtein. “Israel expects the United Nations to contribute to and cooperate in this effort.”
Even Miller admitted that “there are other humanitarian organizations that operate inside Gaza that are delivering aid; there are other U.N. agencies that are operating inside Gaza.” But, he insisted, “we see UNRWA as continuing to play a critical role.” According to Katz, only 13% of current aid to Gaza goes through UNRWA.
“In my view, the more they [the Biden administration] speak and more importantly act, the clearer it is that they are in support of Hamas,” Smith surmised. “[Vice President Kamala] Harris is supportive of Hamas. … Biden at least tried to appear to be ambivalent, to be pro-Israel, but not pro-Israel. Not so with her.”
Smith added that “there have always been people in the U.S. Department of State who had a very, very anti-Israeli bias and anti-Semitic bias. And now, it’s showing in all of its ugly colors in this fight.”
“If they [the Biden-Harris administration] truly want to get humanitarian aid to the civilians in Gaza, why not take an alternative route,” suggested Perkins, “unless they clearly want to support the terrorists?” Smith responded, “There has to be a will, and then there is a way to get this done. And they’re not doing it.”
Joshua Arnold is a senior writer at The Washington Stand.