United States taxpayer dollars should not support terror

The undersigned proudly encourage you to take into consideration the Rothman-Kirk letter sent to your office that reads as follows:

Dear Madame Secretary:

We write with concern over continued U.S. contributions to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

Public Law No. 110-161, enacted on December 26, 2007, directed the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to determine whether any Palestinian terrorists receive funding from UNRWA's Cash Assistance or Emergency Cash Assistance Programs, whether UNRWA has control mechanisms in place to prevent such payments, and whether it is possible to certify UNRWA's compliance with section 301(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act. This review is still pending.

According to UNRWA's own reports, UNRWA employees left their jobs to run as Hamas candidates in the last Palestinian election. We know that UNRWA schools are used as launching pads for rocket attacks against Israel. UNRWA's own representative in New York, Andrew Whitley, revealed to congressional staff that UNRWA provided Cash Assistance to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers.

As you know, Hamas is a designated foreign terrorist organization responsible for the 20 murders of 26 American citizens (Annex 1). While we encourage bilateral assistance to support Palestinians opposed to the Hamas ideology of terror and destruction, we remain concerned that U.S. taxpayer contributions to UNRWA may reach Hamas terrorists responsible for the murders of 26 American citizens.

Therefore, we urge you to establish a moratorium on U.S. contributions to UNRWA until the GAO reports back to Congress as directed by Public Law No. 110-161. Until that time, the United States should support Palestinians opposed to the Hamas ideology of terror and destruction through bilateral assistance mechanisms.

Sincerely,


20
Steven R. Rothman Mark Steven Kirk
Member of Congress Member of Congress


Annex 1: David Applebaum of Ohio; Nava Applebaum, 20, of Ohio; Alan Beer of Ohio; Marla Bennet of California; Benjamin Blutstein of Pennsylvania; David Boim, 17, of New York; Yael Botwin, 14, of California; Dina Carter of North Carolina; Janis Ruth Coulter of Massachusetts; Sara Duker of New Jersey; Matthew Eisenfeld of Connecticut; Tzvi Goldstein of New York; Judith Greenbaum of New Jersey; David Gritz of Ma ssachusetts; Dina Horowitz of Florida; Rabbi Eli Horowitz of Illinois; Tehilla Nathanson, 3, of New York; Malka Roth, 15, of New York; Mordechai Reinitz of New York; Yitzhak Reinitz, 9, of New York; Leah Stern of New Jersey; Goldie Taubenfeld of New York; Shmuel Taubenfeld, 3 months, of New York; Nachshon Wachsman, 19, of New York; Ira Weinstein of New York; and Yitzhak Weinstock, 19, of California.



As the letter states, funds provided by the United States are potentially being abused by Hamas for terror purposes. The United States graciously donates large sums of money to the UNRWA under the assumption that our funds will be used to help unfortunate victims of the conflict, not the perpetrators.

The fact that our donations are eventually used against our ally Israel and harm the average Gazan by allowing Hamas to continue its terroristic aims is unacceptable. It is our obligation and our best national interest to provide aid to the victims on both sides of the Gaza conflict. The best way of doing this would be to establish an immediate moratorium on U.S. contributions to the UNRWA until the appropriate measures dictated in the letter are met.