How surprised would you be to know that voluntary American donations to the United Nations are being used to support terrorists in the Middle East? That's right. Despite our current war on terror, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East has put several members of a major terrorist organization on their payroll.
This shocking fact came to light on Oct. 4, 2004, when the Commissioner-General of the UNRWA, Peter Hansen, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that members of the terrorist group Hamas were definitely on his payroll, but that he did not find this problematic. "Oh, I am sure that there are Hamas members on the UNRWA payroll and I don't see that as a crime," remarked Hansen on the CBC's website.
Perhaps it would help Hansen if we gave him a little background on Hamas. According to the organization's own website, "Hamas was formed in 1987 with the objective of destroying the Zionist entity that occupies Palestine, and establishing Palestine from the sea to the river based on Islamic principles." Not exactly in favor of the two-state solution. Hamas was also opposed to the 1993 Oslo peace accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, the same accord which granted the Palestinians autonomy through the Palestinian Authority, produced an Israeli withdrawal from much of the West Bank and all of Gaza and resulted in a shared Nobel Peace Prize for Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Hansen must also be unaware of the fact that since September 2000, Hamas alone has carried out over 426 separate terrorist attacks against Israeli citizens, murdering over 392 innocent civilian victims and wounding over 2,176. If you apply these figures to the relative population of the United States, that would mean 121,121 casualties of terrorism -- the equivalent of more than 40 attacks the size of the one launched on Sept. 11, 2001. Hamas has carried out terrorist attacks everywhere, from school buses to crowded pizzerias, in contested areas as well as within the undisputed, pre-1967 borders of Israel. Their victims include grandparents, babies, college students and entire families. Hamas is relentless in its quest to wipe Israel off the face of the earth.
Employing terrorists is not the only offense that the UNRWA has committed. Armed Palestinians terrorists have used UNRWA ambulances to transport suicide bombers, weapons and possibly also the remains of fallen Israeli soldiers. Nahd Rashid Ahmad Atallah, a senior UNRWA employee in the Gaza Strip who was arrested in August 2002, explained that he had used his UNRWA staff car to transport armed terrorists to their targets because it was a United Nations vehicle, and since the Israeli army did not search such vehicles, he could transport the suicide bombers freely.
All of this raises the question: what is the United Nations doing supporting such a group? Specifically, why does the UNRWA have no qualms with employing and funding terrorists?
We're not talking about small change here, either. UNRWA claims its regular budget for 2004 to be $350 million. According to United Nations' website, 19 donor countries pledged $72 million for the 2004 budget of UNRWA. UNRWA funding comes from "voluntary contributions of donor states," of which the greatest contributor is the United States. Financing is also provided by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the World Health Organization.
Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Dan Gillerman, was quoted in The Jerusalem Post as saying, "It is inconceivable that the UN, which is supposed to be spreading peace is being used as a cover for terror." Of Hansen, Gillerman said, "He is the source of the problem. The UN needs to ask if this man should hold such a central position."
According to the CBC website, the Canadian government, which donates some $10 million to UNRWA annually, said it was "deeply concerned" with Hansen's remarks, and that it "will immediately seek clarification from Hansen directly and from UN authorities."
People are concerned -- and with good reason. What we see happening is despicable. Terrorists are taking advantage of good international intentions, to lethal ends. We cannot sit idly by as our tax dollars go to help support terrorists. Tell the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and our own national leaders that we must not allow terrorists to hijack international aid. Tell your friends and get the word out. We cannot have a UNRWA that supports terror.
