In the wake of the 10/7/23 Hamas attack on Israel, Israel and some of its allies in the US and international community launched an all-out assault on UNRWA – its legitimacy and its existence. The hook for these attacks – which have reached their peak with the Israeli Knesset passing legislation on October 28, 2024 to effectively force the shut down of all UNRWA activities and presence in Israel, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip – has been Israeli allegations that a small number of UNRWA staff members participated in the 10/7/23 attacks and/or are supporters of Hamas.
From the start, these allegations have been seized on by anti-UNRWA forces — in the US and Israel — to argue that UNRWA’s alleged links to terrorism were well-established before 10/7/23, and were in fact the reason President Trump cut off funding to UNRWA in 2018. The facts, however, firmly establish that this narrative – that Trump cut off funds to UNRWA over concerns about ties to terror – is manifestly false, as documented below.
(Emphasis added by me throughout this document)
Part A: Reminder of Israeli position in 2018 on cutting US funding to UNRWA
Times of Israel January 4, 2018: Netanyahu urging Americans not to cut funding for UNRWA — TV report
“Concerned that a threatened cut in US funding for the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA could lead to a humanitarian disaster in Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is privately urging the Trump Administration not to implement the threat, a TV report claimed Thursday. ‘Behind the scenes, the prime minister is now in contact with the Americans in order to prevent the massive cut [in US funding for UNRWA] — to prevent it, you heard right,’ the Hadashot news report claimed…The Foreign Ministry, the report added, flatly opposes the idea of cutting UNRWA’s funding. ‘Professional sources in the Foreign Ministry are ‘determinedly opposed’ to ending aid to UNRWA,’ it said, quoting these sources as arguing that a cut would ‘make matters worse’ and could lead to a ‘humanitarian catastrophe, especially in Gaza.’ IDF sources, the report further said, ‘also think it will hurt, not help.’”
Part B: Trump Admin statements/official positions on UNRWA before/during/after aid cut-off (presented in reverse chronological order)
(NOTE: this research is the result of a far-reaching search and includes every public expression related to UNRWA, oral or written, that I could find online, including at the State Dept website. The fact that there is not one expression that even mentions terrorism reflects the fact that I did not find a single one mentioned, alluded to or even hinted that terrorism concerns were in any way part of the Trump Administration’s thinking when it targeted UNRWA. Also: note that written responses given to Congressional committees represent formal, vetted statements of an Administration’s policies)
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Senate Hearing 116-560 — REVIEW OF THE FISCAL YEAR 2021 STATE DEPARTMENT BUDGET REQUEST, July 30, 2020
Responses of Secretary of State Michael Pompeo to Questions Submitted by Senator Christopher A. Coons
Question. How do the Trump administration’s decision’s to end funding for United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and for humanitarian assistance to the West Bank and Gaza affect stability in the West Bank and Gaza and Israel’s security?
Answer. The Administration made it clear when we provided our final contribution of $60 million in 2018 that the United States would no longer bear a disproportionate share of UNRWA’s costs, and other countries must step up and do their part to advance regional security and stability. UNRWA continues to operate with an unsustainable business model, tied to an expanding community of beneficiaries. We continue to work closely with Israel and key regional partners on ways to improve economic and humanitarian conditions in Gaza. Hamas is primarily responsible for those conditions, having put its own interests above those of Gaza’s residents.
Responses of Secretary of State Michael Pompeo to Questions Submitted by Senator Tim Kaine
Question. Due to the Administration’s termination of humanitarian aid to the West Bank and Gaza, UNRWA is in dire financial straits. For 2020 to date, UNRWA has received funding and pledges that can cover less than 50 percent of its main budget and 60 percent of its planned COVID-19 response. It has received even less for its emergency budgets to respond to the acute humanitarian needs in Syria and Gaza, where Palestine refugees often live in abject poverty. The Agency’s Commissioner-General said this month that absent additional funding, he will have to seek guidance on the programs that the Agency must prioritize over others. Does the Administration believe that if UNRWA stops feeding a million Gazans and assisting 400,000 Palestinians in Syria, turns half a million kids away from their schools, and closes its health network, the region will be more stable? As part of its response to address the COVID-19 pandemic globally, will the Administration restart U.S. humanitarian assistance to Palestinians, including UNRWA?
Answer. The Administration announced in 2018 that the United States will no longer provide financial contributions to UNRWA. That has not changed. UNRWA’s business model remains unsustainable and Palestinians deserve better than a service provision model that operates in permanent crisis mode. The United States is leading the world’s humanitarian and health assistance response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Through USAID, we are providing $5 million in support of immediate, life-saving needs for Palestinian hospitals and households in the West Bank for Palestinians battling the COVID-19 pandemic. This decision does not prejudge future decisions about U.S. assistance in the West Bank and Gaza. We continue to assess how U.S. assistance can best be used to advance U.S. foreign policy and provide value to U.S. taxpayers.
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Senate hearing 116-465 — NOMINATIONS OF THE 116TH CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION, May 30, 2020
Questions to Henry Wooster, nominee to be Ambassador to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan:
Senator Kaine. Well, was UNRWA providing service to those Palestinian refugees in Jordan?
Mr. Wooster. So, UNRWA was providing services, yes, in the form of education in schools.
Senator Kaine. And so, the U.S. decision to eliminate, I think it was, about $500 million a year to UNRWA, that definitely has an effect in life in Jordan, at least insofar as services that are being provided to Palestinian refugees in Jordan are curtailed. And that makes things more difficult for the Jordanian Government in, sort of, managing a reality where they have not only Palestinian refugees, but Syrian refugees. Is that not accurate?
Mr. Wooster. Well, Senator, it remains the prerogative of the United States Government to decide how to appropriate its–not appropriate–excuse me–how to allocate its resources…
Senator Kaine. Right.
Mr. Wooster [continuing]. We had a lot of differences with UNRWA. It was not unique to this administration. There have been a lot–this had gone on for decades–a lot of spats and disputes with UNRWA and the effectiveness of programming and efficiency. So, I cannot make the pretense of telling you I am an expert on all the details, but this had been a longstanding problem that UNRWA had never resolved.
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US Department of State – Outlaw Regime: A Chronicle of Iran’s Destructive Activities, Date: 2020
“Iran’s support for Palestinian terrorist proxies furthers its own strategic interests and threatens our ally Israel, but it comes at a deep cost to the Palestinian people’s security and economic wellbeing. As the regime prioritizes funding for Palestinian terror groups, it falls well short of living up to its self-professed obligation of directly supporting the Palestinian people. In terms of its contributions to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), in the last ten years, Iran has provided only $20,000 to the organization. This pales in comparison to the nearly $3 billion provided to UNRWA by the U.S during this period as well as the almost $2 billion provided by the EU and the more than $600 million provided by Saudi Arabia…”
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Trump “Peace to Prosperity” plan, January 2020
“From 1950 until and including 2017, the United States contributed approximately $6.15 billion to United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). In the last 10 years alone, the U.S. contributed approximately $2.99 billion ($3.16 billion in 2017 terms), which accounted for 28% of all contributions to UNRWA. Unfortunately, Palestinian refugees have been treated as pawns in the broader Middle East chessboard, and empty promises have been made to them and to their host countries.”
And
“To be eligible for any refugee rights under the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Agreement, individuals must be in Registered Refugee status by UNRWA, as of the date of release of this Vision. The reference to the UNRWA definition of refugees is being used solely to define the universe of claimants and to provide the Trustees (as defined below) of the Palestinian Refugee Trust (as defined below) the widest flexibility to determine the appropriate distribution methodology, but should not be construed as acceptance by the United States that, in the absence of the Israeli Palestinian Peace Agreement, refugee status should be determined by reference to this definition, including on a multi-generational, perpetual manner. UNRWA’s mandate, and its multi generational definition of who constitutes a refugee, has exacerbated the refugee crisis…”
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Speech by then-US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman to Christians United for Israel, Date: July 19, 2019
Listing the Trump Administration’s pro-Israel accomplishments: “…if this was the first US administration to refuse to fund UNRWA which perpetuates refugee status for Palestinians and uses textbooks full of anti-Semitic incitement, Dayenu”
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Speech by John Bolton to Christians United for Israel [00:52:29], July 8, 2019
“WE WILL NOT SUPPORT UNRWA UNTIL IT USES AMERICAN AID TO HELP PEOPLE IN EMERGENCY SITUATIONS AND STOPPED FUNDING THOSE PROMOTING HATRED TOWARDS AMERICA AND ITS CITIZENS.”
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Senate Hearing 116-273 — NOMINATIONS OF THE 116TH CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION, PART 1, June 20, 2019
Responses to Additional Questions for the Record Submitted to Andrew P. Bremberg (nominee to be U.S. Representative to the Office of the United Nations and other International Organizations in Geneva) by Senator Benjamin L. Cardin
Question. Although the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) managed to secure enough funding to cover its costs for 2018, are there strategies under consideration for the longer-term financial stability of the organization?
Answer. I understand that for years, the United States has urged UNRWA to seek out new voluntary funding streams, increase financial burden-sharing among donors, and find ways to reduce expenditures. The USG reiterated this when it made its final $60 million contribution to UNRWA in January 2018, and stressed the need to institute such reforms directly to UNRWA, as well as to the regional and international stakeholders who make up UNRWA’s largest contributors. I understand the USG is ready to explore with key regional partners how the United States can assist in transitioning UNRWA services to host governments, or to other international or local non-governmental organizations as appropriate.
Question. What challenges does U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) face as a humanitarian organization working in such a highly politicized environment? What are the potential security concerns and risks?
Answer. The U.N. General Assembly gave UNRWA a mandate that the international community has not been able or willing to sustain. Cyclical budget shortfalls that routinely threaten essential services do not help to build a brighter future for the Palestinian people. If confirmed, I will continue to work closely with Israel and key regional partners on ways to improve economic and humanitarian conditions in Gaza. Hamas is primarily responsible for those conditions, having put its own interests above those of Gaza’s residents.
Question. Under what circumstances, if any, do you think the United States should fund U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA)?
Answer. I understand the USG has made it clear that the United States will no longer bear a disproportionate share of UNRWA’s costs. While several donors increased their contributions in 2018, including UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, UNRWA’s business model–which is tied to an expanding community of beneficiaries–is unsustainable. Palestinians deserve better than a service provision model that operates in permanent crisis mode.
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Senate Hearing 116-158 — NOMINATION OF HON. KELLY CRAFT, OF KENTUCKY, TO BE UNITED STATES AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS’, June 19, 2019
Responses to Additional Questions for the Record Submitted to Hon. Kelly Craft by Senator Tim Kaine
Question. In 2018, the administration ended all U.S. funding for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), an organization that provides critical services including education, health care, and food aid to destitute Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon, and Jordan, with over 50% of its budget applied towards education. While other donor countries covered the shortfall, UNRWA has not had sufficient funds for emergency assistance to respond to the ongoing economic crisis in Gaza or to expand its lauded education program to reach more students. Do you support UNRWA’s mandate to provide critical services to destitute Palestinian refugees? If so, do you support the Administration’s decision to defund U.S.contributions to UNRWA?
Answer. We made have made it clear that the United States will no longer bear a disproportionate share of UNRWA’s costs. While several donors increased their contributions in 2018, including UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, UNRWA’s business model–which is tied to an expanding community of beneficiaries–is unsustainable. Palestinians deserve better than a service provision model that operates in permanent crisis mode. We are ready to explore with key regional partners how the United States can assist in transitioning UNRWA services to host governments, or to other international or local non-governmental organizations as appropriate.
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Israel Hayom, US Ambassador David Friedman: We don’t tell Israel what to do, September 7, 2018
Q: What is the implication of the recent U.S. decision to defund UNRWA? Does the U.S. State Department statement about “UNRWA’s endlessly and exponentially expanding community of entitled beneficiaries” mean that the U.S. will no longer accept this expansion?
Friedman: “UNRWA is a critically flawed organization. It doesn’t advance regional peace and actually perpetuates the conditions that make peace even harder to achieve. As such, the U.S. doesn’t see how any additional investment in the agency will yield a worthy return for the American taxpayers.”
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Source: US Department of State, Statement Announcing Cut-off of US Funding to UNRWA, Aug. 31, 2018
“The Administration has carefully reviewed the issue and determined that the United States will not make additional contributions to UNRWA. When we made a U.S. contribution of $60 million in January, we made it clear that the United States was no longer willing to shoulder the very disproportionate share of the burden of UNRWA’s costs that we had assumed for many years. Several countries, including Jordan, Egypt, Sweden, Qatar, and the UAE have shown leadership in addressing this problem, but the overall international response has not been sufficient. Beyond the budget gap itself and failure to mobilize adequate and appropriate burden sharing, the fundamental business model and fiscal practices that have marked UNRWA for years – tied to UNRWA’s endlessly and exponentially expanding community of entitled beneficiaries – is simply unsustainable and has been in crisis mode for many years. The United States will no longer commit further funding to this irredeemably flawed operation. We are very mindful of and deeply concerned regarding the impact upon innocent Palestinians, especially school children, of the failure of UNRWA and key members of the regional and international donor community to reform and reset the UNRWA way of doing business. These children are part of the future of the Middle East. Palestinians, wherever they live, deserve better than an endlessly crisis-driven service provision model. They deserve to be able to plan for the future. Accordingly, the United States will intensify dialogue with the United Nations, host governments, and international stakeholders about new models and new approaches, which may include direct bilateral assistance from the United States and other partners, that can provide today’s Palestinian children with a more durable and dependable path towards a brighter tomorrow.”
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Jerusalem Post, Kushner: UNRWA ‘corrupt’ and doesn’t help peace, April 20, 2019
“Jared Kushner, senior advisor and son-in-law to President Donald Trump, wrote in a confidential email that the United Nations Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA) is ‘corrupt’ and ‘doesn’t help peace.’…Kushner’s letter, sent January 11, 2018, was revealed on Friday by Foreign Policy magazine. Kushner forwarded it to various current and former government officials, including former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, former national security advisor H. R. McMaster, and Special Envoy to the Middle East Jason Greenblatt. ‘It’s very important to have an honest and sincere effort to disrupt UNWRA [sic],’ wrote Kushner. UNRWA ‘perpetuates a status quo, is corrupt, inefficient and doesn’t help peace.’ He continued, ‘Our goal can’t be to keep things stable as they are, our goal had to be to make things significantly BETTER! Sometimes you have to strategically risk breaking things in order to get there.’…”
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(excerpts)
MAY: I’ve seen some reports that the government is going to announce in the next month or so, that the administration is going to cease funding the West Bank operations of UNRWA, the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which as most of you probably know, is a U.N. agency that handles Palestinian refugees, no other refugees in the entire world. And has managed, since the 1940s, to do the opposite of what the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees does, which is reduce the number of refugees, starting with about 700,000 refugees in — after the Israeli War of Independence, because every descendent of those who claim refugee status becomes a refugee, it’s now up to about 5 million. It could be up to 50 million in years ahead, it — it continues to grow. So the — there’s a new plan on this, as I — as I understand it, in terms of the definition of refugees and in terms of the funding and how it should be funded. Because right now, you have this interesting and kind of illogical situation where somebody who is a Palestinian, living in a territory he considers to be Palestine, can also say, “And I’m a refugee from Palestine. Here I am in Ramallah, I’m a refugee from Palestine.” And why isn’t the Palestinian Authority, which claims to be governing these people, assuming some responsibility as opposed to saying no, there’s a U.N. agency that does it, it’s funded by the donor community, which means us and a few others, we don’t need to worry about this, we can worry about other things.I’ve given you a lot to chew on here but I — I’m sure you have opinions.
HALEY: It’s — it’s a — it’s bigger than that, even. You know, if you look at UNRWA — first of all, we are the most generous country in the world. And we do that because it’s in our core. We believe in human rights. We believe in democracy. We believe in freedom, and we’re always going to fight for those things, not just here in America, but for every country that craves that. And so I think that’s really important. When you look at UNRWA, there’s a couple of issues there. First of all, you’re looking at the fact that, yes, there’s an endless number of refugees that, continue to get assistance, but more importantly, the Palestinians continue to bash America. Continue to bash America. This is the government, not the people, not the Palestinian people.
So the government continues to bash America. They have their hand out wanting UNRWA money. We were supposed to, the last time, give them $130 million. We cut it in half, saying that they really needed to reform and fix the things they were doing, because they teach anti- Israeli and anti-American things in their textbooks. They are not necessarily doing things that would cause peace, they tend to — it’s very political.
So instead of the $130 million, we give them $65 million. They didn’t say thank you. UNRWA had them protest in the streets that we didn’t give more. So at the last Security Council meeting we had, on the Palestinian issue and UNRWA, I went and said, “You are all so quick to wag your finger at us for not giving more. Where is Saudi Arabia? Where is United Arab Emirates? Where is Kuwait? Where are all of those countries? Do they not care enough about Palestinians to go and give money to make sure these kids are taken care of?”
(APPLAUSE)
If the region doesn’t invest in those areas, why are we being faulted for not investing in those areas? They have to have skin in the game. They have to — they’re the ones that fight me every day on Israel issues. But yet they don’t give a penny when it comes to — any more than they have to. They give tokens, and then we still are the largest donor of UNRWA at the same time. So it goes to a second set. Our job is not to take the beatings that you give us, saying we’re not kind to Palestinians and then turn around pay for them. Our job is to make sure that, look, we’ll be a partner with you, but only on a partner basis of something you believe in. So you show us you care, and then we’ll come back and decide if we’re going to give.
MAY: And by the way, this at least raises the question of whether the money that we are donating is seen for what it is, a form of charity. Or if it is seen as entitlements, or worse, reparations for some sin we have committed. I don’t think we want to agree that we owe this; we give it out of the kindness of our hearts.Also I would say those who are talking about what you’re talking about, possibly defunding UNRWA, possibly melding UNRWA into the offices of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees — which again, takes care of all the other refugees in the world and does it rather well as a U.N. agency, it is one of the better ones — from what I’ve seen in my opinion as — from my days as a foreign correspondent.It doesn’t mean the money will be cut off to those in need. But let’s identify it for what it is. Somebody born in Gaza, living in Gaza, who doesn’t have a job, is poor and may need welfare. Maybe we help with that. But let’s call it what it is. It’s welfare. And let’s have the P.A., even if we assist them, if we should — let the P.A. give that welfare rather than do what they’ve been doing, which is keeping these refugees essentially as a knife aimed at the throat of Israel, because that’s really the purpose of increasing the number of refugees strategically over the years, is it not?
HALEY: Well, and I think, too — look, if you look at the situation Palestinians live in, in Gaza, it’s horrible. It’s sad, it’s heartbreaking, you know, all of those situations — no one should be OK with how they’re living. Our concern is, the Palestinian Authority is not doing anything to fix the problems with Hamas in Gaza. They have to take responsibility for what is happening in Gaza, and until they take responsibility, and until the Arab community takes responsibility for what’s happening in Gaza, we can’t begin to try and fix this problem. And so I think a lot of it is, everyone’s quick to blame America for a lot of things that aren’t our issue. We do it because we want to be helpful. We do it because we want all people to live a good, free life. But we don’t do it because we’re expected to do it or to pick up the burden of other countries, and I think that’s happening.And I think there’s a bigger issue because if we are ever going to get a better quality of life for Palestinians, we have to have — we have to have them come to the table for a peace agreement. We have to have the two come together and say, “OK, this is enough,” and that’s only going to happen if the region pushes that to happen.
MAY: I see. I’m going to try to nail you down on two issues but you don’t need to be nailed down, obviously. One is, do you think that — at this point, that it is a good idea for UNRWA to be melded eventually into the U.N. Human Rights Commissioner’s Office, so that we don’t have two agencies for refugees in the world. That we just have one and refugees are treated equally around the world. Is that a good idea?
HALEY: I am not for putting that in. UNRWA can stay there, and we will be a donor if it reforms what it does. If it goes and makes sure that they’re not doing those teachings in textbooks, if they actually change the number of refugees to an accurate account. We will look back at partnering them. But otherwise, you’re just molding an organization that has flaws into another organization, and that’s not fixing the problem. I think we have to go further than that.
MAY: One other question, then we’ll move on to another subject, and that is the so-called right of return. The idea that every Palestinian who calls himself a refugee, whether one who left in 1949 at the end of the war or the great-great grandson, or whatever — that they all have — or should have — a right of return in effect. If the negotiations should be left to the final status agreement, would it not make more sense to say, “Look, Palestinian refugees were — they can come back to the state of Palestine if there is a two-state solution, which requires two states for two peoples, and one of those two peoples must be the Jewish people and must be recognized as that”? But 5 million Arab Muslims are going to say, “they’re not coming back, get the right of return off the table, it’s not to be negotiated, it’s not going to happen.” Once it’s accepted it’s not going to happen, then you say, “OK, how do we come to terms so we have a two-state solution?” Do you agree with that, the right of return should be off the table?
HALEY: I — I do agree with it, and I think we have to look at this in terms of what’s happening in Syria, what’s happening in Venezuela, what’s happening in other parts of the world and how we treat refugees and how we’re going to look at that going in the future. So I absolutely think we have to look at right of return.
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Remarks by President Trump in Rosh Hashanah National Press Call with Jewish Faith Leaders and Rabbis, September 6, 2018
…And the other thing I did, Alan, I will tell you, is I stopped massive amounts of money that we were paying to the Palestinians and the Palestinian leaders. We were — the United States was paying them tremendous amounts of money. And I’d say, you’ll get money, but we’re not paying you until we make a deal. If we don’t make a deal, we’re not paying. And that’s going to have a little impact. I said, “By the way, did you ever do that before?” I said to some of the past negotiators. “Did you ever do that before? Did you ever use the money angle?” They said, “No, sir. We thought it would be disrespectful.” I said, “I don’t think it’s disrespectful at all. I think it’s disrespectful when people don’t come to the table.”
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Ambassador Haley Delivers Remarks at a UN Security Council Meeting on the Middle East, July 24, 2018
“No group of countries is more generous with their words than the Palestinians’ Arab neighbors, and other OIC member states. But all of the words spoken here in New York do not feed, clothe, or educate a single Palestinian child. All they do is get the international community riled up. Let’s take UNRWA, for example. Last year, Iran’s contribution to UNRWA was zero. Algeria’s contribution to UNRWA was zero. Tunisia’s contribution to UNRWA was zero. Other countries did provide some funding. Pakistan gave 20,000. Egypt gave 20,000. Oman gave 668,000. Now, it’s not only the Arab and Islamic countries that warrant highlighting. Other countries talk a big game about the Palestinian cause. In 2017, China provided 350,000 to UNRWA. Russia provided two million dollars to UNWRA. Moving up the list, Turkey gave 6.7 million. Kuwait gave nine million dollars. United Arab Emirates gave 12.8 million dollars. Again, if you judge a nation’s commitment to the Palestinian people by the words heard in this chamber, you might come to the conclusion that the United States has been less generous, simply because we stand proudly with our ally Israel here at the UN. But once again, this conclusion would be entirely false. Last year, while Algeria was providing nothing to UNRWA, and Turkey was providing 6.7 million dollars, the United States gave 364 million dollars. That’s ten times the combined amounts from every country I just named.”
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Foreign Policy — Trump and Allies Seek End to Refugee Status for Millions of Palestinians, August 3, 2018
“Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor, has quietly been trying to do away with the U.N. relief agency that has provided food and essential services to millions of Palestinian refugees for decades, according to internal emails obtained by Foreign Policy… his position on the refugee issue and his animus toward the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is evident in internal emails written by Kushner and others earlier this year. “It is important to have an honest and sincere effort to disrupt UNRWA,” Kushner wrote about the agency in one of those emails, dated Jan. 11 and addressed to several other senior officials, including Trump’s Middle East peace envoy, Jason Greenblatt. “This [agency] perpetuates a status quo, is corrupt, inefficient and doesn’t help peace,” he wrote…In the same January email, Kushner wrote: “Our goal can’t be to keep things stable and as they are. … Sometimes you have to strategically risk breaking things in order to get there.”
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VOA Interview: UN Ambassador Nikki Haley: Full Transcript, January 17, 2018
In response to questions about reform and UNRWA:
HALEY: “I think we’re looking at overall reform. When we say that we’re basically looking at the fact that you’ve got, basically they’re considering Palestinian as a refugee. Looking at the fact that what they’re teaching in schools is not necessarily the right way to have things run. It is very top heavy from an administration standpoint. But also, the other side of that is again, we’re not going to reward bad behavior. Here you’ve got the Palestinians who are basically saying they’re going to cut the U.S. out of the peace process. They’re saying they no longer want to have anything to do with us. They go and take us to the United Nations and try, basically, are very hostile in what they say and what they do. We’re not going to pay to be abused. It doesn’t make sense. What we’re going to say is, ‘Look, we want to help you, but first of all, you’ve got to show us that you’re going to reform something that’s broken.’ Secondly, ‘Don’t think that you can sit there and say hateful things about us and turn around and write you a check.’ It’s wrong in every turn. And so basically, what we’re saying is, ‘Look, you can have this little bit, but after that, we’re going to re-evaluate the relationship.’”
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Haaretz, Nikki Haley: U.S. to Withhold Funding for UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees Until They Join Peace Process, January 2, 2018
“U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Tuesday that Trump administration wants to stop funding the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the agency tasked with assisting Palestinian refugees, until they ‘return to the negotiating table’ with Israel.”
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Full text of Nikki Haley’s 2 speeches at UN Security Council debate on Jerusalem, December 18, 2017
“The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees operates schools and medical facilities throughout the region. It is funded almost entirely by voluntary contributions. Last year, the United States voluntarily funded almost 30 percent of UNRWA’s budget. That’s more than the next two largest donors combined. And it’s vastly more than some of the members of this Council that have considerable financial resources of their own. I’ll be blunt: When the American people see a group of countries whose total contributions to the Palestinian people is less than one percent of UNRWA’s budget – when they see these countries accuse the United States of being insufficiently committed to peace – the American people lose their patience. I have been to the Palestinian refugee camps the United States supports with their contributions. I have met with men, women, and children. I have advocated on their behalf. I can tell you that their leaders do them no favors by being more open to abandoning peace negotiations than to doing the hard work of seeing them to completion.”
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Jewish Insider, Haley Defends UNRWA’s Schools and Healthcare Against Congressional Attacks, June 29, 2017
“Amidst an onslaught of Congressional criticism, US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley defended UNRWA, the UN agency responsible for aiding Palestinians. “I will say there’s also good that comes out of UNRWA: what they do with the schools and healthcare. You do see value in it,” Haley said on Wednesday when speaking before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The former South Carolina Governor was responding to harsh attacks on the UN Relief and Works Agency including by Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL). The Florida lawmaker called for the closing of UNRWA, noting that the organization’s “mandate extended lamentably through June 2020. Three more years of this is unacceptable.” Ros-Lehtinen charged that UNRWA’s activities contributed to incitement against Israel.
“When commenting on the importance of UNRWA’s schools given the difficult conditions that Palestinians often face, Haley explained, “There is so much resentment between the Palestinians behind that fence and Israel: that an uneducated Palestinian versus an educated Palestinian.” Rep. Scott Perry (R-PN) then interrupted Haley and asked her how much longer should the United States continue to fund UNRWA given the perceived lack of reforms. Haley responded, “The schooling and the health care for those groups in there (Palestinians), I mean, there’s no other place for them to get it. There’s a population there that does need to have that.”
“At the same time, the US Ambassador also called on UNRWA to ensure that all of the Palestinians the agency serve are actually refugees, in addition to reviewing their textbooks to remove incitement. Haley also slammed the UN Human Rights Council for its “abusive” and hypocritical policies against the Jewish state…”
Part C: Re-writing history in the present day (just a few examples)
Former SecState Mike Pompeo, February 1, 2024 — The Jewish Chronicle: “’The Biden Administration should be ashamed that American tax dollars paid for the salaries of individuals employed by UNRWA who celebrated and contributed to the violence we saw on October 7,’ he said. ‘Biden failed America and Israel by allowing American taxpayer dollars to go to UNRWA, an organisation that supports terrorism and has long been riddled with waste and fraud…The Trump Administration knew this, which is why we stopped funding it. The Biden Administration reversed that correct decision, and now the damage has been done as those resources contributed to the horrific attacks on October 7. UNRWA should be dissolved immediately.’”
Former SecState Mike Pompeo, January 29, 2023 — FoxNews: [In response to question about allegations against UNRWA staff related to October 7th attacks] “I’m not surprised in the least. It is the very reason we stopped funding them in the Trump administration. This is known. We have known it was a corrupt institution. The difference employee between someone working on behalf of the Iranians and a part of the UN – we knew it was going to educating. We should have stopped funding this organization. We did. Biden Administration turned it back on and here is the direct result. I won’t be shocked at all if we learn there wasn’t just a dozen, but dozens and dozens and dozens of UN employees proving the UN’s moral failure. Dozens of employees involved in the October 7th and holding of American hostages since that day.”
Former US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, October 24, 2023 — The National Review: “Despite pushback from the State and Defense Departments, U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley led the charge to halt taxpayer dollars from going toward the organization after learning that the money was being used to spread antisemitic hate and terror in the region.”
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Mike McCaul (R-TX), January 28, 2024 – Fox News: “’The United Nations Relief Agency, the previous Trump administration, cut all funding for a reason, just for this reason. The idea that UNRWA was actually supplying, you know, harboring weapons to assist with Hamas’ invasion of Israel,’ McCaul told Fox News’ Shannon Bream on ‘Fox News Sunday.’”
House Oversight & Accountability Committee Chairman Glenn Grothman (R-WI), March 21, 2024 – press release: “…the Biden Administration had been sending taxpayer dollars to UNRWA since 2021 despite concerns that funds were being diverted to support terrorist activities. That is why the previous Administration had withheld funding from UNRWA. The Biden Administration unwisely reversed this decision..”