Media Research Center (MRC) Founder and President Brent Bozell, along with more than seventy other conservative leaders, have signed a letter calling on Congress to defund every cent of U.S. funding of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).
The letter to the House and Senate leaders of both parties, sent by former Vice President Mike Pence’s Advancing American Freedom (AAF), says that the U.S. cannot continue to fund what now appears to be a terrorist organization:
“It is a moral imperative that the United States Congress affirmatively defund the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and prohibit the Biden Administration from directly or indirectly providing any taxpayer funding or support to the openly antisemitic and now apparently terrorist organization.”
The letter cites articles by The New York Times and The American Jewish Committee (AJC) implicating members of the UNRWA in Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attack on Israel.
“According to Israeli intelligence reports, at least 12 employees of UNRWA were part of the unprecedented Hamas terror assault on Israel on October 7, which left 1,200 people dead and over 240 taken hostage,” the AJC article explains:
“Israel revealed that six UNRWA workers were part of the wave of terrorists who breached the Gaza-Israel border and massacred civilians inside of Israel. Additionally, two helped to kidnap Israelis, two others were tracked to sites where hundreds of Israeli civilians were shot and killed. Others coordinated logistics for the assault, including procuring weapons.
“Among the 12 UNRWA employees who were linked to the terror attacks, seven were primary or secondary school teachers, including two math teachers, two Arabic language teachers, and one primary school teacher.”
One of the UNRWA Arabic teachers was, reportedly, a Hamas commander.
“Congress can no longer pretend that UNRWA is simply a humanitarian organization,” the conservative leaders’ letter concludes, calling for cancelation of every penny going to UNRWA:
“Not one cent of American taxpayer money should ever again be used to directly or indirectly support UNRWA. Congress must defund UNRWA in the next appropriations vehicle that becomes law.”
Former President Donald Trump had stopped UNRWA funding during his administration, but President Joe Biden reversed that policy in 2021. Since then, the U.S. has reportedly donated more than one billion dollars to UNRWA, The Daily Caller reports.
Last year, a Republican bill to defund UNRWA failed to advance to a vote by the full Senate.