Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and 10 others are threatening to withhold funding for the United Nations and Palestinians if the General Assembly holds a vote to remove Israel from its membership.
Last month, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas demanded before the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) that Israel’s membership be suspended and promised to bring forth a resolution to do so, prompting threats of retaliation from Congress.
“I call upon your esteemed Assembly to suspend Israel’s membership in the General Assembly until it fulfills its obligations and the conditions for accepting its membership, and implements all the resolutions of the United Nations and its bodies,” said Abbas. “We will submit a request to the President of the United Nations General Assembly in this regard.”
Cruz, a Republican, who has been briefed on the matter by U.S. and Israeli officials, led 10 of his colleagues in threatening congressional retaliation for such a move.
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“If Israel is suspended from the UN General Assembly, we will move to limit American participation and funding across the U.N., including UN Programmes, Funds, and Other Entities and Bodies,” the letter, obtained by Fox News Digital, read.
“The Palestinian Authority and PLO are supposed to be treated as terrorist groups under American law. The United Nations is filled with nations hostile to America and our allies,” Cruz said in a statement.
“For decades, American lawmakers have not just ignored those facts, but sent American taxpayer dollars to boost these Palestinian groups and the U.N. to enable them to function. If the Palestinians go through with their plan to suspend Israel or if the U.N. agrees, we are committed to making sure that America will reevaluate those relationships and cut off those organizations.”
It’s not clear how the Palestinian Authority plans to move the request forward. It could submit a resolution, or it could follow a path used to remove South Africa in 1974 by bringing the matter to the U.N.’s Credentials Committee and seeking to have the Israeli government stripped of the ability to represent its nation before the assembly.
The U.S. and many European nations would be likely to vote against a motion to remove Israel. Russia may do the same, fearing a similar tactic could be used against them.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas demanded Israel’s membership be suspended and promised to bring forth a resolution to do so, prompting threats of retaliation from Congress. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
The IDF said that it finished its operation in the Bani Suheila area of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, destroying infrastructure used by Hamas. (Israel Defense Forces)
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Last month, some two-thirds of the U.N. voted for a resolution demanding Israel return all land and assets it settled in the Palestinian Territories since 1967. It also called on nations to halt treaties and trade relations with Israel where Palestinian territories are involved.
For the U.S.-Palestinian relationship, “cooperation with the PA, ending assistance to the West Bank and Gaza, terminating all Palestinian-related offices across the U.S. government including the Palestinian-facing consulate and the Office of Palestinian Affairs, and broadly curtailing diplomatic, economic, and security engagements between American and Palestinian officials.”
The U.S. has paid more than $1.2 billion in aid to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza since the outbreak of war after Oct. 7, 2023. It’s granted Israel some $12.5 billion in military aid over the same time period.
Earlier this week, some 100 lawmakers signed on to a letter warning the U.N.’s funding could be on the line if it boots Israel over its war in Gaza with Hamas.
A Palestinian man walks past the rubble after Israeli forces withdrew from the area around Kamal Adwan hospital in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip, on Oct. 26, 2024. (REUTERS/Stringer)
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“We write to express our deep concern about prospective efforts of the Palestinian Authority to downgrade Israel’s status at the U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) and strip the State of Israel of its key privileges in the body,” a letter led by Reps. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., and Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla, reads.
“Any downgrade in Israel’s status or standing at the UNGA will result in a corresponding downgrade of U.S. financial, material and political support to the U.N.”
In his speech last month, Abbas claimed that Israel had failed to implement U.N. resolution 181, which called to partition Palestine into two separate states, one Arab and one Jewish, with Jerusalem placed under a special international regime, and resolution 194, which called for Palestinian refugees to be able to return to their homes.
“Israel, which refuses to implement the U.N. resolutions, is not worthy of membership in this international organization, and Israel, whose representative in this international organization says that this U.N. building, in which we are now, should be removed from the ground, does not deserve to be a member of your organization, and it has not met the conditions for this membership from the beginning,” Abbas said.
On Monday, U.S. and Israeli spy chiefs met in Qatar to revive negotiations on a cease-fire in Gaza and a release of the Israeli hostages.
The U.N. Security Council met Monday at Iran’s request to discuss Israel’s strikes on the regime over the weekend.
“Israeli regime’s actions constitute a grave threat to international peace and security and further destabilize an already fragile region,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said in a letter to the 15-member council on Saturday.
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“The Islamic Republic of Iran, in alignment with the principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations and under international law, reserves its inherent right to legal and legitimate response to these criminal attacks at the appropriate time,” he wrote.