The United Nations defended its appeal for countries to keep funding the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), after the United States argued that donors should stop supporting an agency it claims has been infiltrated by Hamas and instead direct its money toward the Security Council-backed Board of Peace. Speaking at UNRWA’s annual pledging conference in early July, U.S.Ambassador Jeff Bartos accused member states of repeating a failed approach and said the agency had become a "subsidiary of Hamas.""Doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result is the definition of insanity," Bartos said.
"And yet, here we are again, another annual pledging conference for UNRWA.Same speeches … same condemnation of Israel, same failures to condemn Hamas."HAMAS SAYS IT WILL DISSOLVE GAZA GOVERNMENT, BUT ISRAEL WARNS GROUP STILL SEEKS HEZBOLLAH-STYLE CONTROLUNRWA's headquarters in Gaza City, Gaza, Feb.
21, 2024.(Dawoud Abo Alkas/Anadolu via Getty Images)Bartos urged governments to stop funding UNRWA schools in Gaza, which he accused of indoctrinating children in hatred of Jews and glorifying terrorism.
He also cited allegations that UNRWA employees participated in the Hamas-led Oct.7, 2023, attack against Israel."You can choose to fund incitement, terrorism and stagnation, or you can choose to fund the Board of Peace, giving Gazans a path to peace, prosperity and real, durable change," Bartos said.The Board of Peace is a U.S.-led body created under President Donald Trump’s Gaza plan to oversee transitional governance, reconstruction and long-term development alongside a Palestinian technocratic administration.
The administration argues it offers a better alternative to UNRWA by shifting aid away from what it says is a Hamas-infiltrated system and toward accountable governance and economic recovery.Asked by Fox News Digital why U.N.Secretary-General António Guterres was asking countries to put additional m...