President Donald Trump has made major foreign policy moves in his first few weeks in office, including cutting off U.S. funding to the controversial United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). UNRWA has long faced accusations of ties to terrorists, which have intensified over the course of the Israel-Hamas war that began with the massacre on Oct. 7, 2023.
Former President Joe Biden initially cut off U.S. funding to UNRWA in January 2024, months into the war, after Israel accused members of the U.N. agency of taking part in Hamas’ brutal attacks.
U.N. Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer said Americans need to know that some U.N. agencies, such as UNRWA, are founded on ‘altruistic good intentions,’ but have ‘morphed into something which is the complete opposite of what it was supposed to be.’
UNRWA was founded in 1949 ‘to carry out direct relief and works programs for Palestine refugees,’ according to the agency’s website. However, Neuer disputes Palestinians’ refugee status and says that President Trump’s proposed Gaza takeover uncovered a ‘truth that has been hidden.’
Neuer points out that UNRWA supporters and critics of the president’s proposal have accused Trump of ‘uprooting them [Palestinians] from their homes and lands,’ which would mean that ‘they’re not refugees.’ Gaza, which the U.N. recognizes as part of the ‘State of Palestine,’ would be considered their home under this criticism, negating their refugee status.
However, the problems with UNRWA go beyond ambiguous definitions. Neuer told Fox News Digital that the agency ‘systematically employed individuals who were supporting terrorism.’ He pointed to Fathi al-Sharif, who served as the principal of a school run by UNRWA, as well as the agency’s teachers’ union in Lebanon.
‘We know that the head of UNRWA’s education system, namely, teacher, school principal and head of the teachers’ union of 2,000 teachers in Lebanon, was a man named Fathi al-Sharif… he was the head of Hamas in Lebanon,’ Neuer said, adding that American taxpayers’ money funded al-Sharif and ‘the entire education system that he oversaw.’
In the case of Suhail al-Hindi, UNRWA’s former head of a ‘local staff union in Gaza,’ the agency insists that it suspended and fired al-Hindi after an announcement that he had been ‘elected to political office with Hamas.’
In response to a request for comment, UNRWA told Fox News Digital that it ‘prohibits any type of involvement of staff in a militant or armed group. As a representative of the U.N., any involvement in a group that promotes discrimination or violence violates the principle of neutrality and gravely jeopardizes UNRWA’s ability to provide services and protection to refugees.’
UNRWA referenced al-Hindi’s case specifically, noting it ‘also dismissed another staff member whose name appeared in the list of those newly elected to Hamas political office in Gaza.’
Contrary to critics’ claims, Neuer told Fox News Digital that Israel was not always trying to shut down UNRWA, saying that the Jewish State first saw the agency as ‘convenient’ in the late 1960s. However, Neuer said that Israel’s view on the agency has greatly shifted, particularly since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks.
In January 2024, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini ordered an investigation of any staff who allegedly participated in Hamas’ attacks, which he condemned in a statement. UNRWA told Fox News Digital that ‘upon ascertaining that the individuals were indeed UNRWA staff members,’ Lazzarini ‘immediately’ terminated their appointments.
Late last month, Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon formally notified U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres of Israel’s demand that UNRWA cease operations in Jerusalem and evacuate its premises.
‘Months of good-faith engagement with the United Nations and years of related grievances conveyed to UNRWA, have been met with blatant disregard, compromising its fundamental obligation to impartiality and neutrality beyond repair,’ Danon wrote in the letter.
In a statement released last month, UNRWA spokesperson Jonathan Fowler slammed the laws that Israel passed in October 2024, saying that the Jewish State’s shortening of UNRWA staff visas was ‘tantamount to being evicted.’ However, Fowler confirmed that ‘UNRWA remains absolutely committed to stay and deliver,’ referring to the agency’s other locations in the region.
While Israel’s views on the agency have changed, prompting action from the country’s government, Neuer points out that several countries, including the U.S., failed to ‘take any meaningful action’ against UNRWA. He called the countries’ past moves ‘largely performative and limited.’
When asked about what Americans need to know about UNRWA, Neuer says that the agency is ‘a wolf in sheep’s clothing,’ adding examples of U.N. officials who he says have gone against their mission. He also compared it to a social issue commonly debated here, namely anti-racism.
‘Just like Americans were told for at least the past 5 years – maybe more – that anti-racism means you have to discriminate against white people, against heterosexuals, you know, all kinds of categories, we were told that’s tolerance, that’s equality. We were told that racism and discrimination was anti-racism and anti-discrimination. We were fed a pack of lies,’ Neuer told Fox News Digital.
Addressing UNRWA and the U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC), Neuer added, Theyare no humanitarian agencies. They are agencies that systematically have incentivized and legitimized terrorist groups from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the Islamic regime in Iran. That’s the reality.’
When asked by Fox News Digital about Neuer’s allegations, UNRWA dismissed them and accused U.N. Watch of ‘spreading disinformation against’ the agency.
‘The agency systematically reviews all allegations of misconduct, including breaching U.N. values and humanitarian principles, and launches investigations into any credible allegation, applying disciplinary measures where misconduct has been established, up to and including separation,’ UNRWA told Fox News Digital.
President Trump’s executive order called for ‘renewed scrutiny’ of UNHRC, UNRWA and the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). In the order, UNHRC is accused of ‘protecting human rights abusers,’ while UNESCO is slammed for its ‘failure to reform itself’ among other issues.