UNRWA funding freeze continues as Trump prepares to leave UN human rights council

President Donald Trump is poised to end US cooperation with the United Nations Human Rights Council on Tuesday and continue to freeze financing for the United Nations Palestinian assistance organisation UNRWA, a White House official said on Monday.

The action coincides with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington. Netanyahu has long been critical of UNRWA, accusing the organisation of anti-Israel agitation and its personnel of being “involved in terrorist activities against Israel.”

The UN and UNRWA did not immediately reply to demands for comment.

During Trump’s first term in office, from 2017 to 2021, he also reduced financing to UNRWA, challenging its efficacy, claiming that Palestinians needed to agree to resume peace talks with Israel, and demanding unspecified improvements.

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The first Trump administration also quit the 47-member Human Rights Council halfway through a three-year term over what it called chronic bias against Israel and a lack of reform. The U.S. is not currently a member of the Geneva-based body. Under Democratic former President Joe Biden, the U.S. was re-elected and served a 2022-2024 term.

A Human Rights Council working group is due to review the U.S. human rights record in August, a process all countries undergo every few years. While the council has no legally binding power, its debates carry political weight and criticism can raise global pressure on governments to change course.

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Israel vs UNRWA

Israel’s U.N. ambassador, Danny Danon, on Monday praised the expected moves by Trump, accusing the Human Rights Council of “aggressively promoting extreme anti-Semitism.”

“At the same time, UNRWA has long lost its status as an independent humanitarian organization, and has turned into a terrorist authority controlled by Hamas under the guise of a humanitarian agency,” he said.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said last week that the agency has been the target of a “fierce disinformation campaign” to “portray the agency as a terrorist organization.”

The U.S. was UNRWA’s biggest donor - providing $300 million-$400 million a year - but Biden paused funding in January 2024 after Israel accused about a dozen UNRWA staff of taking part in the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Palestinian militants Hamas that triggered the war in Gaza.

The U.S. Congress then formally suspended contributions to UNRWA until at least March 2025. UNRWA provides aid, health and education services to millions of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.

The United Nations has said that nine UNRWA staff may have been involved in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack and were fired. A Hamas commander in Lebanon - killed in September by Israel - was also found to have had a UNRWA job. The U.N. has vowed to investigate all accusations made and repeatedly asked Israel for evidence, which it says has not been provided.

An Israeli ban went into effect on Jan. 30 that prohibits UNRWA from operating on its territory or communicating with Israeli authorities. UNRWA has said operations in Gaza and West Bank will also suffer.