Wagner, McCaul, Members of Foreign Affairs Committee Call on State Department to Reclaim Funding from UNRWA

Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Ann Wagner (R-MO), Vice Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Congressman Michael McCaul (R-TX), Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, along with 15 other Republican Members of the Committee, today wrote to Secretary of State Antony Blinken demanding the State Department reclaim obligated or committed funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). This funding totals over $120 million this fiscal year.

Excerpt:

“We write with the utmost urgency to demand that the U.S. State Department immediately reclaim the tens of millions of dollars it has obligated or committed to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). While the decision to pause additional funding to this agency was appropriate and necessary, given disturbing evidence of UNRWA employees’ widespread participation in the October 7 attack, it did not go far enough. The American taxpayer must not continue to fund an organization so deeply intertwined with U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs.)”

You can read the full letter here and below:

The Honorable Antony Blinken
Secretary of State
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW     
Washington, DC 20520

Dear Secretary Blinken,

We write with the utmost urgency to demand that the U.S. State Department immediately reclaim the tens of millions of dollars it has obligated or committed to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). While the decision to pause additional funding to this agency was appropriate and necessary, given disturbing evidence of UNRWA employees’ widespread participation in the October 7 attack, it did not go far enough. The American taxpayer must not continue to fund an organization so deeply intertwined with U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs.)

As you are aware, the State Department issued a statement on January 26 announcing it would pause “additional funding” for UNRWA in response to allegations that twelve UNRWA staffers were involved in the horrific Hamas terrorist attacks on October 7. However, new intelligence reports now estimate that approximately 10% of UNRWA’s 12,000-member staff in Gaza—roughly 1,200 individuals—have direct ties to Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ),  both of which are FTOs. These are not merely acquaintances of terrorists; they are believed to be “operatives” who have an active role in these terrorist organizations. Half of UNRWA’s staff have close relatives that belong to Hamas or PIJ, and the percentage of male UNRWA staff with ties to Hamas is higher than the percentage of the entire male Gaza population with ties to Hamas.

The same intelligence assessments, published in the Wall Street Journal, allege that Hamas has stolen more than $1 million of relief supplies from UNRWA, and that Hamas operatives are deeply enmeshed in UNRWA’s assistance delivery operations.  It is undeniable that funding UNRWA means we are funding Hamas. Therefore, it is imperative that the State Department reclaim the United States funding obligated to UNRWA as soon as possible.

We respectfully request that you respond no later than February 14, 2024, with a full explanation of how the Administration plans to reclaim taxpayer dollars to prevent any possible support to the FTOs that massacred over 1,200 innocent people on October 7.

Sincerely,