Demonstrators tell Congress looming US aid cut for UN Palestine agency 'heartless'

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - A group of protesters took to Capitol Hill Friday to tell House lawmakers that their decision to pass a sweeping spending bill that includes a halt to all US funding for the UN's Palestine refugee agency is "heartless."

"It's an example of how cruel, brutal, heartless this Congress is, and how much they will go to any length to support Israel in wiping out the people of Gaza," Medea Benjamin, an activist who founded the Code Pink protest group, told Anadolu as demonstrators sought to press lawmakers on the aid cut as they made their way to the Capitol to cast their votes.

"It is so heartless. At this moment, when people are actually starving, starving, we can see it on our TV screens. They're starving. And yet, this Congress decides that this is the moment to ban money going to the only agency that everybody agrees has the distribution ability to get food out to people who need it," she added.

The US House of Representatives passed 286-134 Friday a massive $1.2 trillion spending bill to fund much of the federal government for another six months. It will now be taken up in the Senate where it is all but certain to be rapidly approved ahead of a midnight deadline to avert another government shutdown.

Within the bill's 1,012 pages is a prohibition on any US funding for the UN's Palestine refugee agency (UNRWA) until March 2025. Meanwhile, the bill allocates $4 billion in military aid for Israel, including $80 million for the procurement of the Iron Dome missile defense system.

Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen said in a statement that “denying funding for UNRWA is tantamount to denying food to starving people and restricting medical supplies to injured civilians.”

“UNRWA was right to immediately terminate those employees and refer the matter for investigation by the UN’s highest investigative body,” he said. “But to punish over 2 million innocent people in Gaza and UNRWA beneficiaries throughout the region for these actions is not just misguided – it’s unconscionable.”

The Democrat from the state of Maryland urged the Biden administration to “immediately release current funding to UNRWA – as the EU, Canada, and others have done – in order to help prevent the famine that now sits at Gaza’s doorstep.”

US President Joe Biden has promised to quickly sign the bill into law as soon as it reaches his desk.

Asked about the president's pledge, Benjamin said he "talks out of both sides of his mouth."

"Biden says he wants to stop all this killing. And yet he's the one that keeps sending weapons transfers after weapons transfers, not even bothering to go through Congress. "Biden says things to act like he cares about the Palestinian people, but he doesn't care a whit and he's not doing anything to help stop the catastrophe."