EDITORIAL: Stop funding terrorists

An aversion to hiring terrorists should be a minimum requirement for groups receiving U.S. aid. The U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees — or UNRWA — doesn’t meet that basic standard.

This month, the U.N. officials fired nine UNRWA workers whom they concluded were likely involved in the bloody Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Hamas terrorists led the invasion, which left about 1,200 murdered, more than 5,000 injured and hundreds taken hostage. In January, Reuters reported that around 190 employees of the UNRWA had been members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad.

The UNRWA is supposed to provide assistance to those in the Gaza Strip and others in the Middle East. It has received billions of dollars from governments around the world. That includes more than $7.3 billion from the United States.

Former President Donald Trump cut funding to the group in 2019 and 2020. But the Biden administration has given it more than $1 billion, including $371 million in 2023. In January, the White House temporarily paused funding after Israel presented evidence that the group employed terrorists.

This is an absolute scandal, but it isn’t surprising. Consider what many UNRWA employees do when they aren’t participating in murderous incursions into Israel.

“Teachers and schools at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which runs education and social services for Palestinians,” Hillel Neuer, the executive director of UN Watch, testified before a congressional committee last November, “regularly call to murder Jews and create teaching materials that glorify terrorism, encourage martyrdom, demonize Israelis and incite antisemitism.”

The organization has also given Hamas access to its buildings. In July, Israel Defense Forces swept into the UNRWA headquarters in Gaza City. They found rockets, tactical drones, mortars and grenades. They even found a terror tunnel beneath the facility. There’s evidence the terrorists use UNRWA schools for cover as well. Hiding behind human shields is morally wrong, but Hamas does it knowing gullible Western leftists will use its cowardly actions to attack Israel.

With the UNRWA facilitating Hamas propaganda, it’s not surprising antisemitism remains high among Palestinians. A March poll of Gaza Strip and West Bank residents showed more than 70 percent still supported the Oct. 7 attacks.

Instead of begging for forgiveness, the UNRWA remains defiant. The top item on its website is an article by Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA commissioner-general, titled, “UNRWA: Stop Israel’s violent campaign against us.”

The UNRWA is so corrupt that it isn’t worth saving. At a minimum, the U.S. should never send this terrorist-employing organization another penny.