Author Atara Beck

On paper, binding legislation was passed by the US Congress back in 2003 requires UNRWA to vet personnel to see if there are terrorists on the payroll. Yet the US has never asked UNRWA to vet its personnel. US Congressional Research Service reports that the US has never checked to see if its humanitarian funds wind up in the coffers of Hamas, which had controlled the UNRWA administrators and teachers unions in Gaza since 1999. Now the US Congress has taken off the gloves, directing the General Accounting Office, the GAO, to determine if UNRWA is fomenting terrorism. The question that the GAO has been asked: Is UNRWA in violation of US penal code § 2339B – providing material support a designated FTO, a “foreign terrorist organization”. Senator James Risch (R-Idaho), chairman of the US Senate Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South and Central Asian Affairs, told this reporter that his office made the official request of the GAO, the US General Accounting office, to launch an unprecedented investigation of the alleged terror involvement of UNRWA. In that context, a newly formed Knesset Lobby for UNRWA Policy Reform, chaired by MK Sharren Haskel from the Likud, convened its first session at the Knesset on July 19. That Knesset lobby will reconvene in late October, after the US GAO report on UNRWA terror involvement is released. Knesset Member Avi Dichter, who chairs the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Security Committee, points a harsh finger at UNRWA, warning that “almost 100 percent” of UNRWA workers in Gaza are active in the Hamas terrorist organization.” David Bedein, who has directed Israel Resource News Agency since 1987, administers the Center for Near East Policy Research. You can contact David through his site, www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com