Reuters is reporting that the Biden Administration and Congress have reached an agreement that will continue a ban on U.S. funding for UNWRA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, the main UN agency for Palestinians, at least until 2025. UNWRA has for years run most of the social, economic, public health and educational programs for Palestinians.
However, while the UNWRA funding ban is a good start, it’s also time to end the travesty of U.S. support for the Palestinian Authority’s “pay to slay.”
For years the U.S. has long been the UNWRA’s largest donor in recent years, to the tune of $300 million to $400 million annually. However, in January, the Biden Administration announced that it was temporarily pausing the funding after Israel produced evidence that a number of UNWRA’s employees had become arms of Hamas with some actually having participated in the October 7 massacre. Aid would remain pending a review of an internal UN investigation announced by UN officials.
Details of the UN inquiry and review have yet to be made public, but the extension of the ban would seem to indicate that Israel’s charges have been largely confirmed. Nor should this be surprising inasmuch as it would be inconceivable that with its broad involvement in the everyday lives of most Gazans, that it’s personnel would not work hand in glove with Gaza’s controlling political and military power.
While laudable, the extension points to the abject failure of the Biden Administration to implement the Taylor Force Act which prohibits economic aid to the Palestinian Authority until the PA ceases paying stipends through the PA’s Martyr’s Fund to individuals who commit acts of terrorism and to the families of deceased terrorists – the so-called “Pay To Slay” law. Indeed, one of President Biden’s first acts as President was to resume aid to the PA which had been cut off by President Donald Trump.
Surely, it’s time the U.S. again refused to permit the use of U.S. money to reward and encourage terror.
