Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) ripped into Israel’s allegations that the U.N.’s Palestinian refugee agency, commonly referred to as UNRWA, is a proxy for the Palestinian militant group Hamas, arguing the accusations are an attempt by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to eliminate the agency.
“There’s no doubt that the claim that Prime Minister Netanyahu and others are making, that somehow UNRWA is a proxy for Hamas, are just flat-out lies,” Van Hollen said Sunday in an interview on CBS News’s “Face the Nation.” “If you look at the person who’s in charge of operations on the ground for UNRWA, it’s about a 20-year U.S. Army veteran. You can be sure he’s not in cahoots with Hamas.”
“Netanyahu has wanted to get rid of UNRWA since at least 2017. That’s been his goal, not just in Gaza, but also in the other places you talked about,” Van Hollen said.
Israel lied, Palestinians died.
Tale as old as time.
“Well, that’s exactly right. And there have been allegations made by the Netanyahu government that up to 14 of those 13,000 people were involved in the horrific Oct. 7 attacks,” he said. “We should investigate it, we should hold all those people accountable. But … let’s not hold 2 million innocent Palestinian civilians who are dying of starvation, let’s not hold them, essentially, accountable for the bad acts of 14 people.”
And this is it. Every leader who immediately cut funds is more than happy to pull a Netanyahu and punish the lives of many for the acts of a few (if there is even a hint of this being true, which considering where it comes from and the provided proof, is highly doubtful). Investigate and deal with anyone who did take part in October 7, but don’t punish everyone. A long time ago we all agreed that counts as a war crime.
It clearly shows Palestinian lives are not worth the same as other lives. Why else cut all the funding to 2M+ people over the alleged acts of 0.05% of the employees of UNRWA.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Hamas, a Palestinian militant group that has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007, killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel in a surprise assault.
CBS News anchor Margaret Brennan further pressed the senator on why he believes Netanyahu is trying to end UNRWA and pointed out the agency is one of the biggest distributors of aid in Gaza.
Van Hollen further argued Netanyahu wants to dismantle UNRWA because he sees “them as a means to continue the hopes of the Palestinian people for a homeland of their own.
UNRWA at the time said it has a strict policy of “neutrality,” while recognizing the challenging circumstances in Gaza due to Hamas’s rule.
Van Hollen warned of the wide-reaching impacts of cutting UNRWA funding in Gaza, which has largely been devastated by Israel’s bombardment following the Oct. 7 attacks.
The Maryland Democrat was among a group of Senators last week to demand President Biden comply with the Foreign Assistance Act and cut off military aid to Israel.
The original article contains 644 words, the summary contains 163 words. Saved 75%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
