How American aid supports terror

The United States funnels hundreds of millions of dollars a year in aid to the Arabs of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID, via the State Department) and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). In doing so we are inevitably funding terrorism. UNRWA itself is an agency that perpetuates Palestinian victimhood and has worked hand-in-glove with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Joel Mowbray has long been on the case. As a result of his reportage, Congress has taken an interest in auditing American aid to the Palestinian Arabs and ensuring it is not spent to support terrorists or terrorism. Congress has assigned the task of evaluating the required controls to the General Accounting Office. The GAO has now released its most recent report on the compliance of USAID and UNRWA with the required controls. (The report is posted online here in PDF.)

The report finds that both agencies are making progress — what a relief! — but that weaknesses remain. Today’s Washington Times carries Joel Mowbray’s article on the GAO report. The article is bluntly headlined “US foots the bill for terrorists.” In a message followoing up on the article this morning, Joel writes:

The GAO report finding that State really can’t keep our money from flowing to terrorists or their propaganda was (shockingly!) ignored by the mainstream media. It would be nice to spread the word that our tax money is going to gruesome causes. Speaking of which, this is the same UNRWA that allowed its employees to elect Hamas as its union leadership! (Didn’t have space to mention this juicy tidbit in my story.) And if these ordinary teachers elect only Hamas officials in a clean sweep, what does that say about the lessons young Palestinians are learning in their classrooms? Obviously, we all know — except State and UNRWA, apparently.

Joel’s message alludes to the election of Hamas members to represent UNRWA workers in Gaza. Israel National News reports that Hamas won control of nearly two thirds of the Gaza branch of the UNRWA employees’ union. The story notes that UNRWA charged last month that Hamas was stealing its humanitarian supplies to Gaza and that Hamas candidates won all 11 seats reserved for teachers. Hamas released a statement Wednesday calling the UNRWA election results “a blow to the Zionist occupation authority.” For those who need help with the translation, the “Zionist occupation authority” would be the Israelis occupying Israel. Thanks to Joel Mowbray for shining a light on this long-running farce.

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