The Committee on Foreign Affairs in the US Congress held a hearing titled "UNRWA Exposed: Examining the Agency's Mission and Failures," following revelations of the aid group's employees taking part in the Hamas-led October 7 massacres in southern Israel.
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The consensus was that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) failed in every imaginable way, the only difference of opinion is what to do with it next. In the meantime, the US and several other countries froze their funding pending reviews, such as those held by the Congressional committee and its subcommittees.
"There's a number of takeaways from the hearing, left, right, center is of the mindset that UNRWA absolutely did unconscionable things," Chair of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Accountability, Congressman Brian Mast from Florida, told i24NEWS.
"Certainly a large percentage of their employees that are either a part of Hamas or some other terrorist organization or support Hamas or some other terrorist organization," the Republican congressman said. "These were things that were not disputed in there [the Committee hearing]."
Mast went on to explain that "amazingly, you still have people that will say 'Yes, I can't defend Hamas but I'm still going to find a way to show support for UNRWA. Yes, I can't defend UNRWA, but I'm still going to find a way to show support for UNRWA,' and that cannot be the way forward for Europe, for America, for anybody."
The congressman, and US military veteran, floated a bill that would defund and disband UNRWA and replace it with the broader United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) which handles refugees from all over the world other than the Palestinians.
A separate bill was filed by another Republican representative, Chris Smith from New Jersey, to disband UNRWA completely without specifying the replacement at this time, saying "we are going to replace it."
"It's about time we pivoted and realized that UNRWA is committing wholesale child abuse against Palestinian youth. It's teaching them to hate every single day," Smith told i24NEWS, explaining "there's no doubt that we will get to a way of providing food, clothing and shelter and education that is free of antisemitism."
"October 7th changed everything," Josh Gottheimer, a Democrat representative from New Jersey, told i24NEWS about why there's a growing number of Democratic lawmakers supporting the move to defund UNRWA.
"I think there's overwhelming evidence that UNRWA is clearly flawed to the core, that it isn't just a couple bad apples, that it is a systemic issue," he explained.
Video: Richard Goldberg testifying in Congress
Gottheimer added that there will be a growing bipartisan group of people in favor of humanitarian aid and education, "but there's other agencies to handle that and that it's time for UNRWA to disappear."
This article was first published by i24NEWS.
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