By Iclal Turan
WASHINGTON (AA) - A new spending bill will cut US funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) until March 2025, according to the text of the $1.2 trillion legislation released by congressional leaders Thursday.
The 1,012-page bill, which aims to keep the federal government funded through September, has continued restrictions on funding for UNRWA amid Tel Aviv’s unproven allegations that some of its staffers were involved in the Oct. 7 attack against Israel.
Meanwhile, the bill allocated $4 billion in military aid to Israel, including $80 million for the procurement of the Iron Dome defense system.
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.”
The US, which is the largest donor to UNRWA, providing between $300 and $400 million annually, said in January that it "temporarily paused" funding to the agency as it reviews Israel’s allegations that 12 employees may have been involved in the attack.
UNRWA has been hindered from doing its job since January when Israel accused 12 of its 30,000 employees of being involved in the attack by the Palestinian resistance group, Hamas.
The US and several countries immediately cut off funding to the agency, and its aid work for Gaza’s famine-stricken population has suffered.
The EU, Canada and Sweden announced earlier this month that they will proceed with funding for UNRWA as Israel has yet to put any evidence publicly to support its allegations.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the US is still waiting to see the conclusion of investigations that the UN is conducting regarding the allegations.
UNRWA was created by the UN General Assembly more than 70 years ago to assist Palestinians who were forcibly displaced from their land.
The agency provides crucial support to millions of Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip, West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and other areas where large numbers of registered Palestinians live.