'UNRWA Is a Horror Show': House Investigates UN Workers' Involvement in Oct 7 Hamas Attack
Mark Martin : Feb 1, 2024
CBN News
"The organization is built from its core mission, its mandate to indoctrinate generation after generation to hate Jews, to destroy Israel." -Richard Goldberg of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies
[CBN News] The US House Foreign Affairs Committee held a hearingTuesday after reports that 10 percent of UNRWA employees are affiliated with Palestinian terror groups, and 12 of them took part in the October 7 attacks on Israel. (Screengrab image: via X)
Several witnesses testified that they weren't surprised.
UNRWA fired most of the workers accused of participating in the brutal terrorist attacks, and the UN says it will investigate.
Meanwhile, members of Congress continue their own investigation into the agency that's been mired in controversy.
"UNRWA is a horror show that is decades in the making, co-produced by the United States taxpayer," shared witness Richard Goldberg of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
He told the congressional committee he wasn't surprised by the allegations that 12 UNRWA employees took part in the massacre, or that 10 percent or more of its staff in Gaza may be affiliated with terrorist organizations, and even more may have family members connected to the groups.
"I wasn't shocked. Many members of this committee who have worked on UNRWA reform for years weren't shocked," Goldberg continued. "Terrorism support and subsidy for UNRWA is a feature, not a bug."
The committee also focused on UNRWA's education of Palestinian children with textbooks that promote antisemitism, promote holy war against the Jewish people, and celebrate terrorists who carried out attacks.
"The organization is built from its core mission, its mandate to indoctrinate generation after generation to hate Jews, to destroy Israel," Goldberg said.
Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) weighed in on that key issue as well. "I believe that the people in Gaza do need to get food, clothing, shelter, and their children need an education that is free of antisemitic hate. That's what they deserve," he said. "This brainwashing frankly, in my opinion, is child abuse."
The US and more than a dozen other countries suspended funding to UNRWA after the Israeli allegations. Witness Hillel Neuer of the organization "UN Watch" urged them to take a step further.
"I've come here to ask the Congress of the United States, which is the largest donor to UNRWA at over $300 million a year, to not just suspend, but to end the funding for good, and to take the lead in dissolving an organization that is riddled with incitement to hate, involvement in terrorism and the perpetuation of war," Neuer told the committee.
Committee member Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) said American taxpayers shouldn't be footing the bill for a group that supports terror.
"The United Nations Relief Workers Agency is a terrorist-supporting entity, ladies and gentlemen," he said. "America's taxpayers pay for the absolute worst of it, the absolute worst of it. They don't get a say."
UNRWA is the major source of humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza. Witness Mara Rudman of the University of Virginia raised concerns about the fate of ordinary Gazans if that assistance is cut off.
"A majority of the two million Palestinians in Gaza depended on UNRWA assistance before October 7," Rudman shared. "For the services UNRWA provides to a desperate population, there is no substitute at this time."
Committee members are calling for a new organization to replace UNRWA. UN officials have warned that UNRWA will have to stop its operations by the end of February if the funding is not resumed. Subscribe for free to Breaking Christian News here
Mark Martin currently serves as a reporter and anchor at CBN News, reporting on all kinds of issues, from military matters to alternative fuels.