WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI) joined Senators Peter Welch (D-VT), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and Tina Smith (D-MN), in introducing legislation to restore congressional funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). The UNRWA Funding Emergency Restoration Act would help address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the West Bank by repealing funding prohibitions on UNRWA included in Congressional appropriations bills and by directing the President to rescind the Executive Order withdrawing the U.S. from and ending funding to certain U.N. organizations. The legislation also directs the U.S. State Department to rescind the temporary pause in funding for UNRWA and expresses congressional support for appropriating critical funds to UNRWA for Fiscal Year 2025 appropriations packages.
“UNRWA plays a crucial role in providing essential social services and life-saving humanitarian assistance like food and medication in Gaza, the West Bank, and throughout the Region,” said Senator Hirono. “Following the identification and ongoing implementation of critical UNRWA reforms, this legislation would reauthorize hundreds of millions of dollars in State Department funding to ensure UNRWA can continue providing desperately needed assistance to millions of Palestinian civilians currently suffering as a result of the war between Israel and Hamas and the current tenuous ceasefire. There is simply no alternative to UNRWA when it comes to delivering food and other life-saving aid in Gaza.”
As the only organization currently capable of providing essential services in both Gaza and the West Bank, UNRWA is critical to the humanitarian response to the Israel-Hamas conflict. Restrictions on U.S. funding to UNRWA, coupled with the Israeli legislature’s recent passage of legislation to terminate UNRWA operations in East Jerusalem and prevent deconfliction necessary to operate in Gaza, endanger the Agency’s ability to safely deliver humanitarian aid to those in need.
In early 2024, the Israeli government made a series of allegations against UNRWA, including that approximately 19 of 13,000 UNRWA employees in Gaza may have participated in the October 7th, 2023, attacks on Israel. In response, UNRWA fired the employees in question, engaged an independent UN review and developed a high-level action plan to implement reform recommendations. Following the completion of the United Nations review, which assessed that UNRWA, “possesses a more developed approach to neutrality than other similar UN or NGO entities,” nearly every country that had paused funding to UNRWA resumed funding.
The UNWRA Funding Emergency Restoration Act is endorsed by over 90 human rights and global aid organizations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Friends Committee on National Legislation, Demand Progress, TIMEP, Human Rights First, Norwegian Refugee Council, Human Rights First, The Borgen Project, KinderUSA, American Friends Service Committee, Church World Service, Peace Action, Middle East Democracy Center, Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), Center for International Policy, and Win Without War.
The full text of the legislation is available here.
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