Former US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, on Tuesday commented on the anti-Israel activities of UNRWA, the UN agency for “Palestinian refugees”, noting that the Biden administration provided the organization with funds that had been frozen during the Trump administration.
“We knew long before Oct. 7 that UNRWA spread anti-Israel and antisemitic hate. That's why the US stopped giving them hundreds of millions of dollars when I was at the UN,” Haley wrote in a post on social media site X.
“Biden-Harris gave the money back, no strings attached. America and Israel will suffer the consequences if Kamala Harris is elected,” she warned.
Haley’s comments come a day after the Knesset approved legislation which would ban the activities of UNRWA in Israel.
The Knesset approved the bills banning UNRWA with a historic majority of 92 out of 120 MKs. Only 10 MKs voted against the bills, with the opposition parties National Unity, Yisrael Beytenu, and Yesh Atid supporting it. The Democrats party abstained.
The bills received initial Knesset approval in July.
The legislation was widely criticized, including by State Department spokesman Matthew Miller, who said the United States was “deeply troubled” by the legislation, which he stated “poses risks for millions of Palestinians who rely on UNRWA for essential services.”
“We are going to engage with the government of Israel in the days ahead about how they plan to implement it” and see whether there are any legal challenges, added Miller.
In 2018, under the Trump administration, the US cut a full $300 million in funding to UNRWA. The Biden administration, however, changed the policy and announced it intends to resume aid to UNRWA.
UNRWA, which has long been criticized for cooperating with Hamas, has come under increased scrutiny as its workers have been found to have been directly involved in Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
Israel revealed in January of this year that UNRWA staff participated in the October 7 Hamas attacks. It then presented a dossier showing that the UNRWA workers who participated in the Hamas massacre kidnapped a woman, handed out ammunition and actively took part in the massacre at Kibbutz Be’eri, where 97 people were murdered.
Following the Israeli revelations, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced the creation of a review group, headed by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, to look into the Israeli allegations.
The group, which released its report in April, said it found neutrality-related issues" in UNRWA but also claimed that Israel had yet to provide evidence for allegations that a significant number of its staff were members of terrorist organizations.