US lawmakers advance bill to block new UN rights for Palestine
The House Foreign Affairs Committee also voted on legislation to claw back UNRWA funds and denounce a UN decision to list Israel as an abuser of children’s rights.
US lawmakers advanced legislation Thursday that aims to shut down any attempt by the United Nations to elevate Palestine from an observer to a more active participant in the world body.
The bill is a direct response to the UN General Assembly voting overwhelmingly in May to grant Palestine new privileges that stop just short of full UN membership. They include the right to be seated among member states in alphabetical order, rather than in the back of the chamber as an observer, and the right to introduce proposals and amendments.
The United States voted against the UN resolution, which also recommended the Security Council reconsider the Palestinian bid for full membership.
Lawmakers on the House Foreign Affairs Committee from both parties echoed the long-held position of the US mission to the UN of support for Palestinian statehood, but only through direct negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel.
“One-sided UN resolutions do not advance peace. They single out one side of the conflict for blame, while encouraging the other side to reject direct negotiations in favor of a unilateral strategy,” Rep. Kathy Manning (D-N.C.) said before voting in support of the bill.
The committee advanced the legislation with a bipartisan vote, 28-18, on Thursday, sending the measure to the House floor for a vote on final passage in that chamber.
The bill would create a higher standard than the existing US ban on UN funding triggered if the body grants the PLO the same status as a member state. Sharpening the language, the bill would write into law a ban on US funding going to the UN and UN programs if they allow the PLO “any status, rights or privileges beyond observer status.”
Ranking member Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) was among the Democrats who agreed that a negotiated deal between Palestinians and Israel that hammers out issues like control of Jerusalem is the only path to “real and lasting peace.”
But Meeks and other Democrats also warned that the bill could have unforeseen consequences, possibly cutting off UN funding because the body already provides enhanced privileges to the European Union and the government of the Roman Catholic Church, known as the Holy See.
“The current draft of this bill could gut US leadership at the UN, following a US defunding, including possibly even causing the United States to lose our ability to vote in the general assembly within a year,” Meeks said. The committee’s top Democrat voted against the bill.
UNRWA funding and children's rights
The committee also advanced legislation that seeks to claw back funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. US funding for UNRWA was on hold earlier this year following allegations by Israel that 12 employees of the agency participated in Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
Republicans made the case on Wednesday that UNRWA continues to serve as a safe haven for militants in Gaza. But Democrats praised the agency for its role in leading the humanitarian response in the enclave after nine months of war, and warned that further restricting funding would prove devastating to Palestinians who are hungry, sick and dying.
“UNRWA’s financial situation is already teetering on the edge of collapse. This bill is the definition of really kicking someone while they are down,” Meeks said.
House Republicans advanced the bill on a party-line vote, 24-22. Democrats were in lockstep voting against the measure. It would almost certainly be defeated in the Democrat-controlled Senate.
A resolution that would reject the UN decision to list the Israeli military in its report on abusers of children's rights also advanced with bipartisan support.
Israel’s nine-month offensive in Gaza has killed over 38,000 people, mostly women and children, according to data from the Hamas-run Health Ministry. And UN experts on Tuesday stated a “starvation campaign” by Israel has led to more Palestinian children dying due to hunger and malnutrition, evidence that famine has spread across Gaza.
But the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), said the UN report listing Israel alongside Hamas, the Islamic State and the Taliban as an abuser of children’s rights follows a “pattern of antisemitism” at the UN.
“Israel has demonstrated that it takes serious measures to mitigate civilian harm. It is Hamas who purposefully put civilians in harm's way,” Burchett said.
Meeks agreed, saying that “Israel has no place on this list." But he admitted the war in Gaza has “exacted an intolerable toll, especially for children," and urged continued cooperation with Israel to “ensure that it takes every precaution to prevent children in Gaza from being harmed in this conflict.”
Bipartisan legislation that would sanction a small militant group known as the Popular Resistance Committees for aiding Hamas in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel also advanced on a bipartisan vote. “They also likely coordinate with Hamas to move money and avoid sanctions. So it's necessary for Hamas sanctions to be effective that we also sanction the Popular Resistance Committees,” said Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), the bill’s sponsor.
The committee also advanced two resolutions that would reiterate US support for religious and ethnic minority survivors of genocide in Iraq, including Yazidis and Chaldean Christians, and call out Sudanese militias in the Darfur region for acts of genocide against non-Arab ethnic communities.
