Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird today co-led a 24-state coalition in a letter to Congressional leadership, urging Congress to permanently cut all funding to the terrorist-embedded United Nations Relief and Works Agency (“UNRWA”).
On October 7, 2023, dozens of UNRWA staff participated in the largest attack on the Jewish community since the Holocaust. UNRWA’s ties to terrorism are not just the work of a few bad apples; as much as 10% of its staff is tied to Hamas. UNRWA even concealed a Hamas command center beneath its headquarters and stored hidden weapons in UNRWA schools.
Not only has UNRWA aided terrorism, it has fueled antisemitic hate. Nearly 300,000 Palestinian children in Gaza attend UNRWA schools, where they have been indoctrinated by antisemitic teachers with textbooks and education materials that even the European Parliament have warned promote violence and antisemitism.
“UNRWA has become a taxpayer-funded welfare program for terrorists,” said Attorney General Bird. “There is no excuse to pay a single cent more in taxpayer dollars to an organization that employs terrorists and fuels antisemitic hate. President Trump had it right when he cut funding to UNRWA in 2018. We are calling on Congress to immediately and permanently defund UNRWA.”
The States urge Congress to cut all funding to UNRWA. After the barbaric October 7 terror attacks, there is no excuse to pay UNRWA a single cent, much less billions of dollars.
Iowa co-led the letter with South Carolina. They were joined by Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
Read the full letter here.
https://www.unrwa.org/palestine-refugees