GOP senators move to cut US funding from UN agency with alleged ties to Hamas, antisemitism

A group of Republican senators is reportedly trying to cut U.S. funding to a United Nations agency that they allege promotes antisemitism and employs Hamas-linked Palestinians.

Legislation introduced this week by Tennessee Sen. Bill Hagerty would, if passed in the Democrat-controlled Senate, end U.S. funding for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which works in the Gaza Strip, where Israel is fighting to destroy the militant group Hamas.

The U.N. group has has been linked in recent weeks to Hamas's war crimes, according to a copy of the bill obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

Hamas launched a terror attack on Israel, and Israel in turn declared war on Hamas. 

American funding for UNRWA was frozen during the Trump administration but restarted when President Joe Biden took office, the news website also reports.

The United States has awarded the aid organization at least $600 million despite allegedly promotes antisemitism in its school and advocates Israel's destruction. More recently, the Free Beacon reports, agency employees conspired with Hamas to kidnap Israeli citizens.

The bill, supported by Ted Cruz, of Texas, and Mike Braun, of Indiana, attempts to strip U.S. funding for UNRWA until the State Department can certify that the agency has stopped using antisemitic teaching materials in its schools and does not employ any individual with ties to Hamas or other Palestinian terror groups. 

"Until President Biden's State Department can certify to Congress that UNRWA has no ties to terrorist organizations and does not encourage anti-Israel terrorism, Congress must put an end to this Administration's funding of both sides of the Israel-Hamas war," Hagerty told the Free Beacon.