Trump to cut UN funding over anti-Israel activities and support of Palestinians

Trump is preparing an order to hold funding from international bodies that act against US and Israeli interests. 

The Trump administration is preparing executive orders that would clear the way to drastically reduce US funding to the United Nations and other international organizations, targeting specifically bodies that are anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian, the New York Times reported Wednesday.

American funding accounts for 22 percent of the UN budget.

The first of the two draft orders, titled “Auditing and Reducing U.S. Funding of International Organizations” and obtained by the New York Times, calls for terminating funding for any United Nations agency or other international body that meets any one of several criteria.

Those criteria include organizations that give full membership to the Palestinian Authority (PA) or Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) or support programs that fund any activity that circumvents sanctions against Iran or North Korea.

The PA has joined several international bodies, from where it wages campaigns against the Jewish State.

The draft order calls for enacting “at least a 40 percent overall decrease” in remaining US funding toward international organizations and for terminating funding for any organization that “is controlled or substantially influenced by any state that sponsors terrorism” or is blamed for the persecution of marginalized groups as well as any other systematic violation of human rights.

The order also establishes a committee to recommend where those funding cuts should be made. It asks the committee to look specifically at United States funding for peacekeeping operations; the International Criminal Court (ICC); development aid to countries that “oppose important United States policies”; and the United Nations Population Fund, which oversees maternal and reproductive health programs.

If Trump signs the order and its provisions are carried out, the cuts could severely curtail the work of UN agencies, which rely on billions of dollars in annual US contributions, the Times reported.

US lawmakers have likewise called for cutting US funding to the UN over its anti-Israel activities.

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) threatened to campaign for a bipartisan consensus in Congress that would punish those who pushed for the resolution with a cut in US aid. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) Tom Cotton (R-AK) and James Lankford (R-OK) signaled support for Graham’s initiative.

Likewise, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) called on the US to withhold funding to the UN until it reverses the resolution.

Under former President Barack Obama, the US cut funding to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization when it accepted Palestinians as full members.

Israel has already announced it was cutting at least NIS 30 million in funding to several UN bodies.

By: World Israel News Staff