By Dr. Thomas Patterson |

UNRWA, the “United Nations Relief and Work Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East,” as the name implies, provides humanitarian aid exclusively to Palestinian victims of war. Like all UN agencies, it is purportedly politically neutral and concerned with mitigating conflict, not participating in it. Unfortunately, UNRWA is neither.

UNRWA has a long history of antisemitism in support of the Islamist cause. For example, UNRWA uses books in their schools containing blatantly antisemitic passages. The donor nations that support UNRWA have objected but UNRWA’s promises to remove the offending passages somehow never happen.

A greater concern is that UNRWA allows terrorists to hide their rocket launchers and other weapons in UNRWA facilities, including schools. UNRWA’s staff has failed to call out the practice and in fact, have joined it.

We also know, due to diligent research by UN Watch, that some of the 13,000 UNRWA employees in Gaza pitched in to help with the horrific massacre of Israelis last October 7. These self-described committed humanitarians voluntarily committed rape, torture, and murder on defenseless victims. Other UNRWA members praised their colleagues for the good work.

Now it has come out that senior officials have stolen food and supplies intended for Gazans. One whistleblower working at a shelter tells of agreeing with co-workers to get out the truth about the corrupt administration even though they knew they would be subject to reprisals.

He told how “displaced people in the external shelter do not get their right to food and non-food aid, but rather it is distributed at night and sold in front of our eyes and everyone who speaks is transferred….”  Another told of how “district officials rummaged through the aid cartons and stole the items and their brothers sold them.”

Many others have reported extensive profiteering by UNRWA staff, supported by a compliant administration that refuses to call out the thieves and punishes those who report it. Local Gazans are fed up.

UNRWA officials of course deny the charges, lumping them with ongoing criticism they are subjected to from right-wing crazies. Any other agency with the track record of UNRWA would be designated an enemy pro-terrorist organization.

It might not surprise those familiar with the Obama-Biden history to know that the U.S. continues to be a faithful funder of UNRWA, contributing around $400 million last year. Admittedly, this amount wouldn’t cover the annual overpayment in food stamps, but it’s still boneheaded to—again—support an organization that is our deadly enemy.

The outrages of UNRWA present an opportunity to seriously re-examine our relationship with the U.N. School children are taught that the United Nations was formed by the victorious allies at the end of World War II to assure the end of such destructive wars. It was a time of great hope and idealism.

Unfortunately, looking back after nearly 80 years and $1 trillion, the dreams have died. The U.N. is widely regarded, even by many senior officials, as a bloated, corrupt bureaucracy dedicated mostly to its own perpetuation.

It had nothing to do with the great international relations success of our time, the ending of the Cold War. On the contrary, the Soviet Union ignored every U.N. entreaty but had to finally stand down when its socialist economy could no longer protect itself from America’s military might.

The U.N. has grown from 51 original member nations to 192 today. Unfortunately, most of these are small satellite states who supported first Communist dictatorships and now Islamist autocracies. Meanwhile, Russia and China, two of the most aggressive threats to world peace, are permanent members of the Security Council. They veto attempts to counter their atrocities, like Russia’s unwarranted attacks on several former satellites and the Chinese genocide of the Uyghurs.

Meanwhile, the U.N. continues to disappoint when it counts. During the COVID pandemic, the U.N.’s World Health Organization, rather than providing the medical leadership needed, collapsed into politicization, lying to help the Chinese Communists cover up the origins of the virus. Several voting members of the U.N. Human Rights Council still practice slavery.

The world is not a better nor safer place because of the U.N. It resists meaningful reforms. We should just leave.

Dr. Thomas Patterson, former Chairman of the Goldwater Institute, is a retired emergency physician. He served as an Arizona State senator for 10 years in the 1990s, and as Majority Leader from 93-96. He is the author of Arizona’s original charter schools bill.