Senate Republicans had blocked the funding for a U.N. agency, but State bypassed the hold on September 28.
Senate Republicans had blocked the funding for a U.N. agency, but State bypassed the hold on September 28.
T he State Department has so far ducked questions about its decision, made days before the October 7 terrorist attacks in Israel, to bypass Senate restrictions to send $75 million to a scandal-plagued U.N. agency that operates in Gaza.
Multiple times since last Tuesday, National Review has requested comment from Foggy Bottom about the aid money that was directed to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). Although a department spokesperson initially acknowledged the inquiry, State has not provided a response on the matter nearly a week later.
NR’s repeated inquiries follow confirmation from the team of Senator Jim Risch (R., Idaho) that State chose to unilaterally advance $75 million in funding for UNRWA on September 28, defying a hold that the Idaho lawmaker had placed on the money, marked for a food-aid program. As the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Risch had the prerogative to hold up State Department grants that the committee viewed as concerning or poorly justified.
In a February press release that promoted legislation to cut off U.S. funding for UNRWA, Risch noted that the U.N. agency employed people connected to Hamas, that it used antisemitic textbooks, and that UNRWA-run schools stored Hamas weapons. Other critics noted that even seemingly legitimate forms of aid free up funds for Hamas, which is the governing authority of Gaza, to spend on terrorism-related goods and activities.
Citing similar concerns about UNRWA, the Trump administration had cut all U.S. support for the organization, which the Biden administration restored in 2021, granting it $235 million that year with a pledge to seek reforms. The Hamas attacks, and the decision to bypass Risch’s hold, are leading to new questions about the Biden administration’s effort to reboot this assistance to Palestinians.
Senator Ted Cruz, a persistent UNRWA critic and member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told NR: “We now know that Hamas was preparing its genocidal attack on Israel for months if not years. As it was in the final stages of preparing, the Biden administration was spending its time and energy trying to find every last way to send every last dollar into the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.”
“They had restarted aid to Gaza at the beginning of the administration despite knowing that it would be used to benefit Hamas, and they kept pouring in money right until Hamas physically launched its attack,” he added.
The leadership of UNRWA, which operates aid programs across the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan, strongly denies that it assists terrorism and says that all of its affiliates are checked against the U.N. Security Council’s consolidated sanctions list.
UNRWA has maintained that its operations are essential to staving off a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, even more so now amid Israel’s campaign to eliminate Hamas capabilities. UNRWA’s Washington-office director Bill Deere told NR that UNRWA is “grateful for this recent, ongoing example of the generosity of the American people,” adding that the State Department funding “allows the agency to keep operating its food-assistance pipeline to Gaza, a program implemented in full cooperation with the Israeli authorities.” He added that UNRWA had to stop its third-quarter food distribution after October 7 and that Israel’s siege of the enclave has prevented it from carrying out this mission.
“Funding to UNRWA directly benefits Palestine refugees through its education, primary health care, and social-service programs, including food assistance to Gazans, and these funds do not pass through any state or non-state actors. Like all U.N. agencies partnering with the U.S., UNRWA takes very seriously its responsibility to adhere to the requirements of U.S. law not to directly or indirectly provide support to individuals or entities associated with terrorism,” Deere told NR.
UNRWA has lobbied against Israel’s siege of Gaza, saying that 14 of the agency’s employees have died and warning that hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced. It also attracted scrutiny earlier today when it deleted a statement it had posted to social media that accused the Hamas-run public-health ministry in Gaza of stealing supplies from an UNRWA facility.
UNRWA communications director Juliette Touma reiterated the agency’s call for Israel to lift the siege during a U.N. press conference today, saying that its Gaza-based staff are “terrified.” She told reporters that she would need to check with her colleagues on the ground regarding several of the reporters’ questions, including whether UNRWA is in contact with Hamas, if it has demanded that Hamas release the hostages it took in the October 7 attacks, and when the last inspection of UNRWA facilities for weapons prior to the massacre had taken place.
As recently as five days before the Hamas attacks, State was still dodging questions about its support of UNRWA. When asked at a daily press briefing if the department would request that the U.N. inspect and disarm UNRWA-run camps that store weapons, and if it has a problem with Palestinian textbooks that promote terrorism, spokesman Matthew Miller only said that the U.S. supports a two-state solution and Israel’s right to defend itself.