Congress passed a one-year ban on UNRWA funds as several Western countries have resumed funding the U.N. agency aiding Palestinian refugees.

The U.S. government will defund the United Nations agency that aids Palestinians through next year — even as 1.1 million people in Gaza face threats of famine in coming months — on the basis of flimsy allegations by Israel against a tiny minority of the agency’s staff that have yet to be proven.

The bill also contains a long-standing provision that would limit aid to the Palestinian Authority, which governs the occupied West Bank, if “the Palestinians initiate an International Criminal Court (ICC) judicially authorized investigation, or actively supports such an investigation, that subjects Israeli nationals to an investigation for alleged crimes against Palestinians.”

After a late-night vote, the Senate sent the bill to President Joe Biden to sign it into law on Saturday.

  • cosmicrookie@lemmy.world
    15·
    4 months ago

    The U.S. first suspended aid to UNRWA in late January, when the Israeli government leveled allegations that 12 of the agency’s 30,000 employees — or 0.04 percent — were involved in Hamas’s attacks on October 7

    This triggered many other nations to defund UNRWA but many of them have resumed funding since