A truck carrying humanitarian aid from UNRWA arrives at the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip (Khaled Desouki/AFP)

"Let's get the funding restored." This was the plea from Chris Gunness, former chief spokesman for UNRWA, in a recent Democracy Now interview (See link in Breaking the Stories). He went on to say, “Let’s avoid a mass starvation. And to be clear, starvation is a massacre in slow motion.” The Biden administration precipitously suspended U.S. funding to UNRWA after Israel alleged on January 29 (not coincidentally, just three days after the ICJ ruling) that a handful of UNRWA’s total staff (13,000 in Gaza, over 30,000 in the region) had participated in Hamas’ October 7^th attack. 

Israel has yet to produce, for its UNRWA donors, substantive evidence for its allegations. But President Biden rushed to judgment. He suspended U.S. funding for the humanitarian support and the infrastructure for education, relief and social services, and primary health that, since its inception in 1950, UNRWA has been providing the 5.9 million Palestinian refugees registered with UNRWA in Gaza, the West Bank, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan. Biden's decision would be devastating at any time -- the U.S. is UNRWA’s biggest contributor, providing close to 30% of UNRWA’s contributions in 2023 – but given Israel’s horrifying and criminal genocidal assault on Gaza, the U.S. decision to withhold this lifeline of support, if sustained, will be a death sentence for thousands, a “massacre in slow motion.” 

Demand that the Biden Administration reverse course and immediately resume UNRWA funding, and at the same time cut off military aid to Israel. Send an email to your senators and member of Congress through Global Ministries' 3rd Thursday alert here, through AFSC here, and through Fosna here. And make phone calls to their offices as well. Also contact President Biden and Secretary of State Blinken here. Make your voice heard in every way and as many times as you can.