39 Republicans Sponsor Bill To Cut Off Funding of UNRWA

The Taylor Force Act, passed by Congress unanimously in 2018, was designed to cut off all economic aid to the Palestinian Authority as long as the PA’s “Pay-For-Slay” program remained in operation. That is the program according to which the PA provides generous subsidies for imprisoned terrorists and for the families of terrorists who died while engaged in terrorist attacks. The Bidenites have been dead set on renewing aid to the Palestinians, and knowing that Mahmoud Abbas will never stop funding the “Pay-For-Slay” program, they decided on a work-around: they would provide funding not to the PA directly, but to UNRWA, which is not mentioned in the Taylor Force Act. Some of that money could be used by UNRWA to pay for schools and hospitals that the PA would otherwise have to pay for; funds given to UNRWA could even be transferred by UNRWA directly to the PA. Congressional Republicans are determined to end this violation of the spirit, if not the letter, of the Taylor Force Act, and now 39 0f them, from both Houses of Congress, have introduced a bill to drastically cut down on American aid to UNRWA. More on this proposed legislation is here.

An external audit of UNRWA is called for because some of  UNRWA’s most senior executives, including a recent Commissioner-General, have  been involved in scandalous behavior, involving money and sex, which ended in a half-dozen being forced to resign. The allegations against them included “sexual misconduct, nepotism, retaliation…and other abuses of authority” which led to an “exodus of senior and other staff” and a toxic and dysfunctional work environment.”

One of those made to resign in 2019 was UNRWA’s Director-General, Pierre Krähenbühl, who was accused of a multitude of serious infractions. The allegations against him included:

• Conducting a romantic affair with UNRWA employee Maria Mohammedi.
• Fast-tracking the appointment of Mohammedi to the newly-created role of Senior Advisor to the Commissioner-General, so the two could be closer.
• As a result of the inappropriate personal relationship with Mohammedi, creating a toxic environment for colleagues and embarrassment with donors.
• Bringing Mohammedi on the majority of his business trips.
• Misusing his authority to obtain waivers for Mohammedi to travel business class while most other management traveled economy class.
• Being away from his duty station in Jerusalem and at Mohammedi’s duty station in Amman for 28-29 days per month, claiming a daily subsistence allowance for those days.

This Congressional legislation will require an outside audit of UNRWA before any American aid to the agency will be released.

Americans must wonder why they should be expected to continue to give more than 20 times as much to UNRWA as any of the Arab states. If those states – many of them the fabulously rich oil states of the Gulf – don’t care to support their Palestinian Arab brothers, why should Americans take up the slack and provide twenty times as much for them? We have, after all, a lot on our plate: since the Russian invasion of the Ukraine, the Biden administration and the U.S. Congress have directed nearly more than $75 billion in assistance to Ukraine, which includes humanitarian, financial, and military support, according to the Kiel Institute. It makes sense, in our straitened circumstances, for the US contributions to UNRWA to be no greater “than the highest contribution made by a member of the League of Arab states.” Assuming Qatar doesn’t increase its current contribution, that clause in the legislation will decrease Washington’s aid to UNRWA by a factor of twenty.

UNRWA also continues to use schoolbooks dripping with antisemitic venom, even though it has repeatedly promised in the past to get rid of all such material. Its educational materials also glorify individual terrorists, suggesting to Palestinian young people that these terrorists are worthy of emulation. Unless and until all such materials promoting antisemitism and terrorism against the Zionists are removed, this bill would prohibit all American aid to UNRWA.

The praise in UNRWA schoolbooks of the Palestinians who “sacrifice their blood to liberate Jerusalem,” and calling on the entire umma, or Muslim nation, not to be negligent in “protecting al-Aqsa” from “the Jews” who would “defile” it by their very presence, clearly promote both antisemitism and violence. If this bill passes, UNRWA will have to decide: will it clean up its schoolbooks and other educational materials, or will it forego the hundreds of millions of dollars the Bidenites have been sending it each year ($940 million in the Biden Administration’s first two years)?  

Meanwhile, for nearly two decades, Hamas has been using UNRWA schools and hospitals in Gaza to hide weapons, rocket launchers, ammunition,  and fighters. UNRWA has pretended not to know about this use of its buildings as hideouts and storehouses for the terror group’s weapons and fighters, but it knows perfectly well what is going on. Far from complaining, UNRWA approves of this use of its facilities by Hamas in Gaza to hide both men and weapons. Indeed, UNRWA has among its 30,000 employees  many Hamas and PIJ members, as former PLO spokesman and Hamas apologist Rashid Khalidi has revealed. And the aid given to UNRWA allows it to fulfill tasks – such as housing, education, medical care, financial support for the poor – that otherwise would be the responsibility of Hamas alone, as the ruler of Gaza. Money is fungible; what is given to UNRWA to spend  in Gaza is money that Hamas itself need not spend.

This bill deserves to be supported. It puts the Bidenites on the spot. They will have to guarantee to Congress that UNRWA is free of financial scandal, which the agency has seldom been in the past. They will have to ensure that UNRWA removes all of the antisemitism and violence in its schoolbooks, which UNRWA for years has promised, but never has managed, to do. There is little reason to think that it will be able to do so now. And the Risch-Roy bill caps American financial aid to UNRWA, which cannot exceed the amount of aid given to UNRWA by any Arab state.

This legislation closes the “UNRWA loophole” that allowed the Bidenites to get around the provisions of the Taylor Force Act, that applied only to American aid to the PA. Now aid to UNRWA, too, will be subject to all sorts of scrutiny and disabling provisions that will either put UNRWA on the straight and narrow, or deprive it of nearly $500 million annually in aid from the Bidenites who, because of this legislation, will no longer be able to violate the spirit of the Taylor Force Act by lavishing such largesse on an unsupervised UNRWA.

The Truth Must be Told

Your contribution supports independent journalism

Please take a moment to consider this. Now, more than ever, people are reading Geller Report for news they won't get anywhere else. But advertising revenues have all but disappeared. Google Adsense is the online advertising monopoly and they have banned us. Social media giants like Facebook and Twitter have blocked and shadow-banned our accounts. But we won't put up a paywall. Because never has the free world needed independent journalism more.

Everyone who reads our reporting knows the Geller Report covers the news the media won't. We cannot do our ground-breaking report without your support. We must continue to report on the global jihad and the left's war on freedom. Our readers’ contributions make that possible.

Geller Report's independent, investigative journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we believe our work is critical in the fight for freedom and because it is your fight, too.

Please contribute here.

or

Make a monthly commitment to support The Geller Report – choose the option that suits you best.

• $25.00 here
• $50.00 here
• $75.00 here
• $100.00 here
• $250.00 here

4.5 2 votes

Article Rating

12 Comments

Oldest

Newest Most Voted

Inline Feedbacks

View all comments

D

PlatinumGhost

1 year ago

Just wondering if there is anything that the tax paying people aren’t funding? Probably a very short list.

13

mona

1 year ago

Reply to  PlatinumGhost

The correct answer is: NO … taxpayers fund 100% of EVERYTHING local, state, and national governmental bodies reallocate money for.

1

Gandalf Trouserpress

1 year ago

Taqiyya or deceit is an approved tactic which is used to facilitate the spread of Islamic jihad

8

Snowedin

1 year ago

Hopefully more will join in sponsoring this bill. The US in no way should be contributing to the support of any Anti-Semitic terrorist groups.

9

D

PatD

1 year ago

Cut off funds for ALL foreigners!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

8

mona

1 year ago

Reply to  PatD

Agreed with the single exception of natural disasters – and in that case, only if a group of U.S. taxpayers (supported by whatever military protection is needed) are designated to personally distribute the funds/supplies directly to affected citizens, not their government. Strict oversight is also needed and not oversight by politicians of any country or governing body.

1

D

ed

1 year ago

The Taylor Force Act is yet just another law/act/bill that the socialist dems TOTALLY IGNORE and DO NOT ENFORCE. Their end goal is to DESTROY the USA….

8

Andrew

1 year ago

Riddle me this… Why is it ONLY Western Nations that are being forced into this multicultural garbage, I don’t see that happening in Japan, China, India, Kenya, Nigeria, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia.
Why is it that Western Nations are sending money to countries that openly hate us as they cant seem to fix their own countries but expect us to pay for their food and shelter in whatever country they are in while at the same time scream racist racist at us if we don’t comply.
Fuck em…
Hand a man a Fish, feed him for a day, teach a man to Fish feed him for a lifetime.
Fishing is NOT Hi Tech folks and if you live in the Desert try learning what the Israeli people did in turning their Desert into an Oasis and stop expecting us to constantly feed you and send you money that WE have created out of OUR hard work and sacrifice.
Enough already its 2023 and if you cant figure how to feed yourself in your country by now then you are showing the World the level of your IQ and we don’t need anymore low IQ people in Europe or the USA as we have enough of them and they are all homegrown.

5

D

VTS

1 year ago

Good, but it will probably be voted down.

0