There has been much discussion during the Israel-Hamas War about UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. The organization was created by the United Nations after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War to provide housing, food and education for the Palestinians who were displaced. Until a few months ago, most of the world considered it a little known civil aid organization.

UNRWA was created as a temporary agency to aid Palestinians in their transition after the war. It was never meant to become a permanent UN group, but since 1950 it has become a bloated bureaucracy. Historically, the U.S. has been the largest financial contributor to UNRWA, with America funding more than $7.1 billion since the 1950s.

In recent years, a handful of journalists dug deep into the organization and discovered that it has become a proxy of Hamas. About 30,000 Palestinians work for UNRWA – essentially the agency’s entire paid staff, with many UNRWA workers spending their days actually aiding Hamas. UNRWA’s top union leaders have been identified as Hamas cabinet ministers; numerous headmasters and educators were also trained as Hamas terror leaders. (UNRWA educates over 300,000 Palestinian children in Gaza and the West Bank).

Who has been working in UNRWA schools? People like Said Sayyam, the former Hamas Minister of Interior and Civil Affairs, who taught kids for 23 years. Then there was Awak al-Qiq, the headmaster of a UNRWA school in Gaza who led Islamic Jihad’s engineering unit that built bombs and Qassam rockets. And there’s also the founder of the Hamas movement, Sheik Ahmed Yassin – who also once was an UNRWA teacher, and encouraged his students to become suicide bombers.

In schools, UNRWA students glorify Palestinian terrorists who massacred Israelis. They are taught that there is no such thing as coexistence with Israel, and in lectures they are assured that Hamas will destroy Israel. For over a decade, tens of thousands of children – many under the age of 10 – have attended Hamas Summer Camps where they are handed machine guns and knives, and taught to shoot, stab and kidnap Israelis.

In public, UNRWA distributes glossy folders and informational packets extolling the virtues of their work with refugees. But there’s no mention of the dozens and dozens of former UNRWA students who became suicide bombers and killed hundreds.

All of this went under the radar until several years ago, when a handful of journalists – led by The Center for Near East Policy Research – produced several investigative videos that were sent to the U.S. State Department. The U.S. stopped its funding for a couple of years but resumed its grants in 2021, sending $318 million to UNRWA. In the last two years, the U.S. sent another $730 million to fund UNRWA.

But the U.S. stopped funding UNRWA this winter after it was revealed that at least a dozen UNRWA employees were involved in the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7. Last month, the IDF identified at least 450 UNRWA employees who are terrorists. Many are teachers, including Yusef al Hawajara. In a recording recently released by the IDF, Hawajara described kidnapping an Israeli woman who he referred to as a sex slave, or “noble horse.”

Over the last several months, it has become clear that UNRWA has worked hand and hand to assist Hamas militarily. Hamas tunnels are located under UNRWA schools and buildings; weapons have been found in UNRWA facilities and schools; more terrorists have been captured and identified as UNRWA employees. At least one released Israeli hostage testified that she was held captive by an UNRWA teacher in Gaza.

The U.S. should halt its grants until UNRWA is reformed – if not disbanded. There is no reason our tax dollars should go to an organization that teaches jihad, and is controlled by terrorists who seek to destroy Israel.

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