Ending Taxpayer-Funded Terrorism
Imagine paying for a security system that enables, rather than deters, home intruders.
Well folks, that’s what’s happening.
The U.S. contributes more than $18 billion in taxpayer dollars to the United Nations (UN) a year. That’s about a third of the agency’s entire budget and more than any other nation.
The UN exists to help “maintain international peace and security.” Yet, the international bureaucracy has been caught undermining international peace as well as the security along our own border.
At least a dozen staff members of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) helped Hamas plan and carry out the October 7th terrorist attacks against Israel that killed hundreds of people, including 32 American citizens.
The UNRWA staff also assisted with Hamas’ hostage-taking. Hundreds of innocent civilians were kidnapped and carried off by the terrorists, including the six Americans who are still being held hostage.
A Hamas military command and control center found beneath the UNRWA headquarters building in Gaza appears to have run on electricity from the U.N. facility. Weapons and textbooks promoting hatred of Jews have been found in schools operated by UNRWA.
UNRWA has long been suspected of aiding Hamas and may be infiltrated by hundreds with ties to terrorist and militant groups. The Biden Administration, which had been paying UNRWA nearly $350 million a year before suspending the funding last month, acknowledges these claims are “highly, highly credible.”
Any of the UN employees who were aware of the plot could have prevented the attacks. Instead, they helped ignite the ongoing war that is claiming the lives of thousands of civilians and threatening to spread across the Middle East.
Despite these recent atrocities and decades of previous terrorist attacks, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator stated just last week that “Hamas is not a terrorist group for us.”
Closer to home, the UN is contributing to the humanitarian and national security crisis at our southern border by distributing millions of dollars in financial assistance to help support migrants headed north who are crossing into our country illegally in record numbers.
A 2024 UN migrant plan says handing out “multipurpose cash has taken on increased importance” because the money provides migrants “the flexibility to cover their expenses” during their travels. The document includes a map with a red line through one of the most perilous walks on Earth, where migrants must pay the drug cartel for permission to pass, leading right to the U.S. border.
So why are U.S. taxpayers giving billions of dollars to an international organization facilitating the crisis at our southern border and whose own staff helped harm and take hostage American citizens?
We could make the world a safer place by putting those tax dollars to better use, securing our own border, helping our friend Israel eliminate the threat of Hamas, and providing humanitarian assistance to refugees who seek a better life while respecting our laws instead of facilitating illegal immigration.
That is why I gave my February 2024 Squeal Award to the United Nations and am supporting legislation to permanently end U.S. taxpayer funding to UNRWA. This effort would redirect the unspent money intended for that UN agency towards the construction of a wall along America’s southern border to maintain our own security.
Keeping Americans safe must be our top priority.
Joni Ernst, a native of Red Oak and a combat veteran, represents Iowa in the United States Senate.
