Report: Biden Admin Sent Tens of Millions to UNRWA Before ‘Suspension’

The Biden administration sent tens of millions of dollars to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in the weeks before suspending that aid amid allegations that UNRWA employees participated in the Hamas terror attack on Israel October 7.

Republicans at the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs suggested during a hearing earlier this week that the White House had deliberately waited to allocate funds to UNRWA before announcing a suspension of aid on January 26. While evidence has yet to emerge to prove that, Fox News reports that the administration sent $51 million to UNRWA in November, long after the agency had been accused of excessive sympathy for, and even some ties to, the Palestinian terrorists who carried out the attack.

Fox News reported:

The Biden administration sent millions in government assistance to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for FY24 amid allegations of terrorist ties against federal employees prior to the administration’s pause of new funding.

The administration announced a pause on new funding would be enacted last week over allegations that some of its members were “involved” in the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack in Israel. The U.S. government had already earmarked $51 million for FY24 prior to the pause.

…

“The pause decision was well after the initial tranche to UNRWA’s oPt Flash Appeal of $51M,” a State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “That funding was obligated back in mid-November in the early part of the crisis, about 100 days before the Jan. 26 pause.”

At the moment, only $300,000 worth of funds earmarked for UNRWA this year have actually been affected by the suspension.

In a briefing to reporters this week, White House national security spokesman John Kirby admitted: “[T]he money that was suspended — there wasn’t a lot left in the allocation.” He added that the “pause” was only temporary, pending investigation.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the 2021 e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now updated with a new foreword. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.