See email prepared below to send to U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is not allowing legislation to be voted upon that would restrict US taxpayer funding of terror linked UNRWA.
If S.431 - UNRWA Accountability and Transparency Act proposed over a year ago had been enacted there would have been a chance that more eyes would have been on UNRWA, Hamas and Palestine prior to Hamas’ horrific October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
S.431 - UNRWA Accountability and Transparency Act was introduced in the senate on February 15, 2023. The bill is described as “A bill to withhold United States contributions to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), and for other purposes.” There are 25 Republican co-sponsors and no Democrat co-sponsors. The bill was referred to the Senate Foreign Relations committee on February 15, 2023 and has not been considered. Click here for more info on S.431. This legislation would have required in part:
“(2) CERTIFICATION.—Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the United States may not provide contributions to UNRWA, to any successor or related entity, or to the regular budget of the United Nations for the support of UNRWA or a successor entity (through staff positions provided by the United Nations Secretariat or otherwise) unless the Secretary of State submits a written certification to the appropriate congressional committees that—
“(A) no official, employee, consultant, contractor, subcontractor, representative, affiliate of UNRWA, an UNRWA partner organization, or an UNRWA contracting entity pursuant to completion of a thorough vetting and background check process—
“(i) is a member of, is affiliated with, or has any ties to a foreign terrorist organization, including Hamas and Hezbollah;
“(ii) has advocated, planned, sponsored, or engaged in any terrorist activity;
“(iii) has propagated or disseminated anti-American, anti-Israel, or anti-Semitic rhetoric, incitement, or propaganda, including—
And the list of prohibited activities continues here
Pursuant to this bill the responsibility for scrutinizing and reporting on UNRWA activities would fall on the Secretary of State. As far left of center as he is, Antony Blinken, US Secretary of State, would have been required to provide an exhaustive report or no US funds would be distributed to UNRWA. IF S.431 had been enacted there could have been many more eyes on Palestine, UNRWA and Hamas which may have prevented the Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack.
Another Senate bill was introduced on January 31, 2024 which would defund pro-Hamas UNRWA and divert funds to build the border wall. S.3708 bill is co-sponsored by John Kennedy (R-Louisiana), Marco Rubio (R-Florida), Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), John Barrasso (R-Wyoming), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee),Kevin Cramer (R-North Dakota) and Mike Crapo (R-Idaho).
Florida Family Association sent out an email alert on February 26, 2024 which asked people to send emails to urge 95 United Sates Senators to replace terror linked UNRWA at the UN and stop spending our tax payer dollars to support it. That email alert reported in part:
UNRWA facts:
In the last few weeks, it has been revealed that:
- 12 UNRWA staff took part in the October 7th massacre.
- 1,200 UNRWA staff in Gaza are members of terrorist groups.
- 3,000 UNRWA teachers were in a Telegram group that celebrated October 7th.
- Hamas built a terror tunnel directly below UNRWA Headquarters in Gaza, hiding a computer intelligence center that was powered by the agency’s electrical grid.
- UNRWA summer camps for children ages 10 - 17 have been teaching them to attack Israel with guns and guerrilla warfare.
- UNRWA school curriculums have been teaching a false history of the region and encouraging hatred of Jews and Israel, and the murder of Israeli civilians.
Don’t let our government continue spending our tax money on the radicalization of Gaza.
Aid can flow through many other international agencies that don't have UNRWA's "war of return" as their defining narrative.
Enough is enough. It’s time to replace UNRWA.
UNWatch.org has documented dozens of cases over the past 10 years of UNRWA support for Hamas. You can read more about UNRWA's "Forgotten History" at this Middle East Forum article.
The United States of America, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Australia, and Canada have temporarily suspended its funding of UNRWA. However, the suspension is temporary. More importantly taxpayers should not count on Biden, who is flip flopping on his support for Israel, to honor this suspension for very long. Legislation is needed to restrict future funding to UNRWA.
Florida Family Association has prepared an email for you to send to urge U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to support and move forward stand alone legislation that will permanently restrict the flow of taxpayer dollars to a terror linked UNRWA.
Click here to send your email to U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer. (For Gmail.com, Hotmail.com, Msn.com, live.com and other email clients that require comma separation of addresses.)
Click here to send your email to U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer. (For Yahoo.com, Comcast.net, Frontier.com, AOL and other IPS that limit the number of email addresses to one.) YAHOO works best in Yahoo Mobile App, not so well with internet browser.
Click here to send your email to U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer. (For Outlook and other email clients that require semicolon separation of addresses.)
Unlike most of Florida Family Association's action emails this email is designed to open in your email client because the United States Senate and Congress block normal form emails sent through the Florida Family Association email server. If the above link does not open in your email browser or if the email is returned to you please prepare an email by copying the suggested subject line, content and email addresses provided below in your own email client. Please feel free to change the wording.
Suggested subject line:
Please support and move forward stand alone legislation to defund terror linked and Hamas supporting UNRWA.
Suggested content:
Dear Senator Schumer,
I am surprised that you of all people do not want to permanently restrict funding to UNRWA as soon as possible. UNWatch.org has documented dozens of cases over the past 10 years of UNRWA support for Hamas. Including similar provisions in another bill that will not pass the house is not working to meet the need. I urge you to support and move forward stand alone legislation that will restrict the flow of taxpayer dollars to a terror linked UNRWA.
Email String separated by commas
chuck@schumer.senate.gov,
chuck_schumer@schumer.senate.gov,
chuck@chuckschumer.com,
mike_lynch@schumer.senate.gov,
meghan_taira@schumer.senate.gov
Email String separated by semicolons
chuck@schumer.senate.gov;
chuck_schumer@schumer.senate.gov;
chuck@chuckschumer.com;
mike_lynch@schumer.senate.gov;
meghan_taira@schumer.senate.gov
Contact information:
United States Senate Majority Leader
United States Senator Chuck Schumer
322 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Phone: (202) 224-6542
Fax: (202) 228-3027
chuck_schumer@schumer.senate.gov
chuck@schumer.senate.gov
Senator Chuck Schumer’s senate campaign
chuck@chuckschumer.com
Michael Lynch
Chief of Staff
mike_lynch@schumer.senate.gov
Meghan Taira
Legislative Director
meghan_taira@schumer.senate.gov
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