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Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Chair of the House Global Human Rights and International Organizations Subcommittee, called the recently released report on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) “an absolute whitewash aimed at covering up the antisemitism, violence and hate that has poisoned the agency for decades.”
Smith, the author of legislation to ban US funding for UNRWA, said “the grotesque flaws in the report further underscore how UNRWA apologists have operated with impunity over the years trying to deceive and vindicate the actions of this appalling agency. No one should be fooled.”
Officially called the report of the Independent Review Group, the document is widely referred to as the Colonna report after its chief author.
“From the very beginning, the Colonna report never aimed to be anything but a total whitewash,” Smith continued. “Senior officials connected to the report repeatedly stated that their goal was to ‘reassure donors’ and ‘provide the donors with further cover.’”
“It’s no coincidence that the staff that conducted the review—from its leadership on down—was comprised entirely of individuals and organizations with long histories of dismissing concerns over UNRWA’s infiltration by Hamas and its blatant promotion and complicity in murderous antisemitism,” said Smith. “Naturally, they produced a ‘report’ that ignores grave abuses and proposes cosmetic reforms.”
“UNRWA remains an unreformable, terror-complicit agency that teaches Palestinian children to hate Jews and glorifies suicidal martyrdom and the evisceration of Israel as a state,” Smith said. “It is a child soldier factory—and no bogus report can change that fact.”
“It’s long past time for the US and the rest of the world to move beyond this Hamas-ridden UN agency and find an alternative that does not promote, espouse, or affiliate with entities or individuals that advance violence, terrorism and antisemitism,” said Smith.
Smith, who has chaired three congressional hearings over the past ten months on UNRWA’s unbridled antisemitism, is the author of the Stop Support for UNRWA Act (HR 7122)—which would permanently prohibit US contributions to UNRWA. Elements of Smith’s legislation were incorporated into appropriations legislation and signed into law in March to prohibit US funding for UNRWA for one year.
