Utah AG Reyes pushing for Congress to cut ties with UN aid group in Gaza 

Utah’s Sean Reyes is one of 24 Republican attorneys general lobbying Congress to stop funding the United Nations agency that oversees humanitarian efforts for Palestinian refugees, calling the group “terrorist-embedded.”

On Tuesday, the group penned a letter to U.S. House and Senate leadership urging them to “stop funding antisemitic education efforts run by the United Nations body tied to terror organization Hamas,” referring to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, also called UNRWA.

“President Trump cut funding to UNRWA that was only restored after President Biden took office. Just as with the crisis at the border, President Biden should recognize that it is time to adopt the right policy of his predecessor,” the letter reads. 

UNRWA helps provide humanitarian aid, education, health care and social services for Palestinian refugees, operating in the Gaza Strip, West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. 

In January, the U.S. suspended funding for the agency following accusations that 12 UNRWA employees were involved in Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 — the U.N. said those staffers had their contracts terminated and eight remain under investigation from the agency’s internal oversight body, according to an April 26 news release. Six additional employees are being investigated for allegations that arose in March and April. 

Reyes and other attorneys general say that suspension should be indefinite “unless UNRWA engages in serious and clear reform.” 

“While UNRWA has fired many employees for participating in the October 7 Hamas-led massacre, even the UN agrees there is more work to be done. Yet some countries have resumed funding UNRWA even before the upcoming report detailing that organization’s antisemitism and deficiencies,” the letter reads. 

The letter also calls out UNRWA’s education efforts in the Gaza Strip, which according to U.N. data, serves 291,100 students in 183 schools. According to the attorneys general, those teaching materials “helped radicalize Gazans before the October 7 massacre.”

“The future leaders and would-be peacemakers in Gaza are instead having their educations poisoned by antisemitic staff and textbooks,” the attorneys general write. 

In addition to Utah, attorneys general from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming also signed the letter. 

Both Reyes and Utah’s U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, also a Republican, have been critical of the U.S. government’s financial ties to the U.N. In December, Lee introduced the DEFUND act, which would terminate the country’s U.N. membership, as well as ending U.S. participation in U.N. conventions and agreements. 

“Name one thing you’d miss if the U.S. stopped funding the UN altogether,” Lee posted to X on Monday. 

Lee’s bill was referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs in December, but has not been voted on.  

U.S. Reps. Brian Mast, a Florida Republican, and Josh Gottheimer, a New Jersey Democrat, also recently introduced a bill that would direct the U.S. Department of State to try to return American tax dollars that funded UNRWA. 

Since Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7, an estimated 34,262 Palestinians and 1,139 Israelis have been killed, according to the U.N.