Op-Ed: Bonnie Glick and David Lega: Dominoes are again falling to defund UNRWA

America and Europe must now lead the way for a new and accountable system, one that bypasses corruption, ensures aid reaches those in need, and lays a true foundation for coexistence and stability.

President Donald Trump likes to say “America First,” while many in Europe follow that up with, “but not America Alone.” Now, Europeans are starting to emerge from Brussels’s preferred position of consensus to speak their nations’ consciences.

In January 2024, the Biden administration made the decision to end over $1 billion in contributions it had made to the UN Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestinian refugees, based on abundant evidence of UNRWA staff complicity in the October 7, 2023 massacre in Israel presented by the Government of Israel and the Switzerland-based NGO UN Watch. Fifteen countries, mostly in Europe but also including Japan and Australia followed suit. UNRWA stood to lose over a billion dollars in funding in 2024 alone.

But the global solidarity against funding terrorism and its supporters lost steam. By April 2024, only the U.S. remained committed to its plans to turn off the donor spigot until at least March 2025.

With Trump’s election victory in November, it is clear that America’s path forward is to defund UNRWA well beyond March 2025, likely to become a permanent ban on funding the corrupt UN arm. Needless to say, the global community is watching closely and some will follow America’s lead. Europeans should all be fast followers. America should not be alone.

According to UNRWA, prior to the October 7 massacre, its main funders were the United States, the EU, Germany, and Sweden. Most funding comes from the “free world” with Saudi Arabia and the UAE contributing token amounts relative to their GDPs. Indeed, the Arab world views UNRWA as “not its problem” and funds it minimally.

Thus has emerged the “everyone to their battle stations” approach of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in his effort to enlist all UNRWA supporters to mount a public relations campaign to extort further funding from western coffers. Guterres and UNRWA’s director, Philippe Lazzarini, have been making a concerted effort in capital cities around Europe to win financial support for the ailing agency.

But Europeans are finally starting not to buy what they are selling. Some European leaders now refuse to be guilted into helping the poor Palestinians who are not receiving because UNRWA allows Hamas terrorists to steal donor-provided assistance and sell it on the black market.

“Free” assistance comes at a cost, and Gazans are the ones paying the high prices. Once donors began to open their eyes to the open air market for their aid, the brazen acts of UNRWA and Hamas (sometimes with UNRWA staff dual-hatted as Hamas terrorists) running the cash registers to sell donor largesse to a population that is struggling became clear.

The Palestinian people may be suffering and in need of help. But that assistance must not pass through UNRWA and Hamas hands to be siphoned off and sold, or used to support terrorists and their efforts to kill and harm Israelis. Aid cannot be used as a tool to promote more hate by Hamas and its partners in UNRWA.

Sweden adopted a morally-unambiguous approach to aiding Gaza’s population. Rather than funding UNRWA, Sweden will double its assistance contributions and directly provide funding to aid workers who are providing that support directly to Gazans.

The UNRWA/Hamas middleman will be removed from the transaction and the Swedish taxpayers’ donations will reach their intended beneficiaries. The approach of the Netherlands is to wean Palestinians off of UNRWA/Hamas assistance gradually with full funding removed altogether by 2029. America and Switzerland adopted the “rip the bandage off” approach by abruptly halting all assistance to UNRWA having determined that there is no viable way to aid Gazans without “leakage” to Hamas.

Whatever the approach donors choose, the key is to recognize the irredeemable nature of UNRWA and to bankrupt it. While many around the world are clamoring to shut down UNRWA, this is easier said than done. Ending UNRWA’s mandate will involve getting a majority of UN member states to agree to the shutdown.

At this moment in history, sadly, it seems unlikely that 50 percent + 1 members will vote in the affirmative to do so. Thus, the scorched earth approach of donors is the recommended course of action. If UNRWA cannot raise the funds it claims to need to fund its operation and its terrorist friends, Antonio Guterres’s other UN Agencies will have to pitch in from their own budgets to cover massive gaps.

We know of no UN program (or government agency) that will agree to a long term or even a short term effort to rob Peter (themselves) to pay Paul (UNRWA). Without funding sufficient to support what it claims to be its mission, i.e., feeding, housing, and educating Palestininians, other entities will fill the void where there is need. And those other entities will take the credit. In cases where UNRWA has invented needs and make-work projects, those will collapse under the weight of their own overhead costs.

UNRWA has outlived its usefulness as a UN agency. If we are unable to shut it down through formal UN channels due to bureaucratic intransigence, it will be run into the ground of its own accord through its chosen path of terror and corruption.

Founded in 1949 as a temporary agency, UNRWA has not only failed to fulfill its mission but has also become a vehicle for promoting antisemitism, fostering dependency, and enabling ties to terror. After decades of warnings and undeniable evidence, including its complicity in the October 7 attacks, it is clear that UNRWA cannot play any role in Gaza’s rebuilding or in creating lasting peace. An organization tasked with helping Palestinians and fostering sustainable peace must have the unanimous trust and support of the international community, not just the trust and support of Hamas.

America and Europe must now lead the way for a new and accountable system, one that bypasses corruption, ensures aid reaches those in need, and lays a true foundation for coexistence and stability. And we need to do it together.

Bonnie Glick was the Deputy Administrator and Chief Operating Officer of the U.S. Agency for International Development. She is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

David Lega is a former Member of the European Parliament. He is a Senior Adviser for Advocacy at the European Jewish Association.