Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) ripped the Biden administration for pausing U.S. funding to the controversial United Nations Relief and Works Agency, or the UNRWA, following allegations that employees of the agency were involved in Hamas’s attack on Israel.
“Cutting off support to @UNRWA — the primary source of humanitarian aid to 2 million+ Gazans — is unacceptable. Among an organization of 13,000 UN aid workers, risking the starvation of millions over grave allegations of 12 is indefensible,” AOC wrote Monday on X.
She added, “The US should restore aid immediately.”
Ocasio-Cortez supported the need for humanitarian aid in the region in a Sunday interview on NBC’s Meet the Press.
The Biden administration had announced on Friday the halt of funds when it came to light that 12 of UNRWA’s employees had participated in the Oct. 7 assault that left about 1,200 people dead.
“The Department of State has temporarily paused additional funding for UNRWA while we review these allegations and the steps the United Nations is taking to address them,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.
A report on Monday stated an Israeli intelligence document found that about 10% of all of the UNRWA Gaza staff have ties to Islamist militant groups and that about 50% of the employees have at least one close relative with ties to Hamas.
The New York lawmaker was criticized on social media for her post defending the UNRWA.
“10% of the UN’s Palestinian aid agency’s 12,000 staff in Gaza have links to Islamist militant groups. AOC is cool with that,” one conservative social media commentator said on X.
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“You are a terrorist sympathizer,” Billboard Chris said on social media in response.
“It’s just 12 UNRWA ‘aid workers’ who murdered & kidnapped Israelis. Don’t we all have 12 colleagues who murder & kidnap? It’s just 1,200 UNRWA staff who are also Hamas & Islamic Jihad operatives. It’s just 3,000 UNRWA teachers whose chat group celebrated the October 7 massacre,” international human rights lawyer Hillel Neuer said.