United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres looks on to speak to the media, after visiting the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, as Egyptian Red Crescent members coordinate aid for Gaza, at Al Arish Airport, Egypt, March 23, 2024. (Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany)
More than 100 U.S. Members of Congress members warned UN Sec.-Gen. António Guterres that Washington would cut funding to the United Nations if the international organization decided to downgrade the status of the State of Israel.
The bipartisan initiative, which was led by lawmakers Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) and Mike Lawler (R-NY), stressed that Congress would oppose UN actions “aimed to delegitimize Israel’s right to self-defense.”
“We have concluded that the UN is not a neutral party, but one that has definitively taken sides against Israel. We remind you that the US is the largest donor to the UN,” the lawyers wrote in the joint letter to Guterres.
“Our contributions account for one-third of the body’s collective budget. We will not accept the UN’s ongoing hostility to our ally Israel,” they added.
The U.S. lawmakers warned that any downgrade of Israel’s standing at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) would lead to a reduction in Washington’s political, material and financial support for the UN.
Furthermore, the Congress members expressed their opposition to the efforts of the International Court of Justice (ICEJ) to undermine the Jewish state’s right to defend itself by demanding a complete withdrawal of IDF troops from Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) without addressing Israel’s legitimate security challenges.
The U.S. lawmakers blasted the UN for its long history of bias against Israel.
“It fits a longstanding pattern of an obsessive bias against Israel in the UN that pervades the entire system, even in the aftermath of the October 7 massacre,” the letter to Guterres stated. “You should be further aware that bipartisan legislation was recently introduced in Congress to prohibit US funding to the UN if Israel’s status at the UNGA is downgraded or its participation is otherwise restricted such that it may not participate fully and equivalently with other member states.”
The letter was reportedly endorsed by the organizations American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) Action; Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET); the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA); the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA); Christians United for Israel (CUFI); the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC); Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA); and the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM).
The United Nations has notably passed more UN resolutions against the State of Israel than against any other member states, including Iran, China, Russia, North Korea and Syria, which are considered human rights violators.
Earlier in October, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz declared Guterres “persona non grata” in Israel after the UN chief refused to condemn Iran’s missile attack against Israel on Oct. 1.
“Anyone who cannot unequivocally condemn Iran’s heinous attack on Israel, as almost every country in the world has done, does not deserve to step foot on Israeli soil,” Katz stated in a post on 𝕏. “Israel will continue to defend its citizens and uphold its national dignity, with or without António Guterres.”
The UN refugee agency UNRWA, which operates in Gaza and other places in the Middle East, has close ties with Hamas, with some of its employees also playing a role in the terrorist organization’s activities in Gaza.
In January, the United States and several donor nations temporarily suspended financial aid to UNRWA after Israel presented evidence that several of its officials had taken part in the Oct. 7 invasion and terror attack. The aid to UNRWA was eventually restored after an independent panel whitewashed the scandal .
