Washington State Dems demand US fund UNRWA after allegations staff participated in Oct 7 atrocities

At the Washington Democrats’ state assembly on Sunday, the body’s central committee passed an anti-Israel resolution, condemning the Jewish state for its “disproportionate response” to the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre and called for funding to be reinstated to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) that lost funding from multiple governments after it was revealed that their employees participated in the attack on Israel. 

The Washington State Democrats central committee passed the resolution, 75-54, which called for a ceasefire in Gaza, days after Hamas leadership rejected an Israeli 2-month cease-fire offer that would have seen the withdrawal of Israeli Defense Forces from parts of the south of Gaza, the IDF allowing Palestinians back into areas in the north and Israel releasing terrorists from prison in exchange for hostages still held by the terror group. 

The resolution did not mention the over 130 hostages still held by Hamas, which includes at least 8 Americans, a 1-year-old, and a 4-year-old. 

The resolution also used Gaza casualty numbers from Hamas, which do not include how many terrorists have been killed and are not verifiable. 

According to The New York Times, 3000 of UNRWA’s employees still working in the Gaza Strip, actively participated in Hamas's war with Israel and employed at least 10 members of Hamas including a school counselor who, together with his son, allegedly kidnapped an Israeli woman. 

Some of the UN’s employees are even suspected of having participated in the Oct. 7 massacre, rape, and torture of over 1,200 Israelis, and the kidnapping of over 250 more. 

The UN agency organizes many social services, including the majority of schools in Gaza, but terror tunnels and rocket launching locations have been found in many of the UN facilities. 

A dossier with the intelligence was circulated among Western officials and accused 12 employees of UNRWA, ten of whom were described as "Hamas members," while another is allegedly affiliated with Islamic Jihad, another terrorist group in Gaza. 

Israeli intelligence collected the data partially by monitoring the employees' cell phones. According to the dossier, some discussed their involvement in the attack, and three of them received text messages directing them to a particular location while the massacre was unfolding. One was even told to bring rocket-propelled grenades from his home, while another distributed ammunition. 

One of the hostages, who was released in November, claimed to have been held in the attic of a UNRWA teacher, but at the time, the UN dismissed the reports as "unsubstantiated claims." 

In response to the intelligence, the US suspended aid to the agency. The US has been one of the organization's largest funders since 2021 after President Joe Biden restored $200M in funding that the Donald Trump administration had previously suspended in 2018. 

Canada, Australia, Britain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Finland followed the US’s lead in suspending aid. 

Despite the damning new evidence, the agency firing nine of the 12 employees (two of the others are supposedly dead), and UN Secretary-General António Guterres stating he was "horrified by these accusations," the Washington Democrats called for funding to be restored to the agency. 

Regina Friedland, a regional director of the American Jewish Committee, told The Post Millennial in a statement, “We are deeply disappointed in the passage of a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza by the Washington State Democratic Central Committee (WSDCC). This resolution was drafted without sufficient input from the state’s Jewish community, which will be directly impacted by its passage. This is evidenced by the horrific desecration and defacement of Herzl-Ner Tamid Congregation, hours after the City of Seattle passed a similar resolution in November 2023.” 

“The US and a growing list of countries have paused their funding to UNRWA amid serious allegations that some of its staff members were involved in the Oct. 7 terror attacks, in which Hamas terrorists murdered, raped, and took hostage Israelis. Yet, the WSDCC resolution chooses to champion UNRWA.” 

“We are deeply grateful for the members of Congress and others who have stood with the Jewish community in these difficult times, and remain committed to working with our elected officials, both Democratic and Republican, who support the safety and security of Jews, at home in Washington State and around the world.” 

While the Democrats were supporting alleged Hamas terrorists at their Bremerton, WA meeting, hundreds of members of the Washington State Republican Party, including elected officials, were listening to a panel at the annual Roanoke Conference in Ocean Shores entitled, “The Facts about Israel, October 7, and the Resurgence of Antisemitism,” moderated by The Post Millennial’s West Coast editor and radio host Ari Hoffman, an observant Jew. 

The panel featured a woman who previously served in the IDF and is also a counter-terrorism expert and two representatives from the Israel advocacy group, Stand with Us Northwest. 

Republican members of the state legislature have led the way since Oct. 7 in condemning antisemitism as well as anti-Zionism. They have been working on new legislation to help the Jewish communities in Washington and enhance Holocaust education in public schools.