Sec. 101. Findings
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Congress makes the following findings: The total annual budget of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), including its core programs, emergency activities, and special projects, exceeds $1,500,000,000. UNRWA employs over 33,000 staff to support 5,000,000 individuals in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, while the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) employs one-third the staff size of UNRWA, with just over 10,000 staff to support over 60,000,000 refugees, asylum-seekers, internally displaced persons (IDPs), returnees (refugees and IDPs), stateless persons, and others of concern to UNHCR .
The United States has long been the largest single contributing country to UNRWA. From 1950 to 2015, the United States has contributed over $5,630,000,000 to UNRWA, including over $380,000,000 in 2015. UNRWA staff unions, including the teachers’ union, are frequently controlled by members affiliated with Hamas. The curriculum of UNRWA schools, which use the textbooks of their respective host governments or authorities, has long contained materials that are anti-Israel, anti-Semitic, and supportive of violent extremism.
On July 16, 2014, UNRWA reported that it had found 20 missiles in one of its schools in Gaza, likely placed there by Hamas, and then returned them to the relevant authorities in Gaza, territory controlled by Hamas. On July 22, 2014, UNRWA reported that it had found a second instance in which missiles were stockpiled in one of its schools in Gaza. On July 29, 2014, UNRWA confirmed that, for the third time in less than a month, a stockpile of Hamas rockets was found in one of its schools in Gaza, establishing a pattern of Hamas weapons being stored in UNRWA facilities, and calling into question UNRWA’s claim of being caught unawares to Hamas’ actions.
On July 30, 2014, three Israeli Defense Force soldiers were killed in an explosion at a booby-trapped UNRWA health clinic, which was housing the opening to one of Hamas’ underground tunnels. On July 30, 2014, John Ging, head of UNRWA from 2006–2011, when asked if Hamas has been using human shields and using United Nations schools and hospitals to store weapons and as a shelter from which to launch missiles into Israel, stated in an interview, Yes, the armed groups are firing their rockets into Israel from the vicinity of UN facilities and residential areas.
Absolutely. . On September 1, 2015, the nongovernmental organization, UN Watch, published a report which documented 12 different Facebook accounts operated by UNRWA officials that openly incite to anti-Semitism and violence, including Ahmed Fathi Bader, who identified himself as a Deputy School Principal at UNRWA and who praised the murder of a group of collaborators with the Jews . On October 16, 2015, UN Watch published a report entitled Report on UNRWA Teachers and Other Officials Inciting Violence & Antisemitism , identifying an additional 10 UNRWA individuals that openly incite to anti-Semitism and violence, including Hani Al Ramahi, who identified himself as a Projects Support Assistant at UNRWA , and who posted an image that encouraged Palestinians to stab Zionist dogs .
On October 20, 2015, the United Nations Secretary-General’s Deputy Spokesman’s office, in response to a question regarding the UNRWA allegations raised in the UN Watch reports, stated that in a number of cases so far, the Agency has found staff Facebook postings to be in violation of its social media rules . . . the staff have been subject to both remedial and disciplinary action, including suspension and loss of pay. The remaining allegations are under assessment. . On March 2, 2016, UNRWA USA’s National Committee communications director, Laila Mokhiber, tweeted her support for Israeli Apartheid Week, a designated week designed to build support for the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions
(BDS)movement. On February 26, 2017, UNRWA announced that it had suspended Suhail al-Hindi, the chairman of the UNRWA Palestinian workers’ union in Gaza and the principal of an UNRWA elementary school after receiving substantial information that al-Hindi was elected to Hamas’ politburo in a vote in early February 2017.