Politics

Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres Goes After International Community After Report Alleges UN Full Of Hamas Connections

House Lawmakers Return To Capitol Hill After The Weekend

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Ilan Hulkower Contributor
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Democratic New York Rep. Ritchie Torres took aim at the international community Tuesday on Twitter after allegations were made that staffers in an international agency had links to terrorism.

Rep. Torres accused “the international community” of cutting “a deal with the devil” through United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East’s (UNRWA) employing of Palestinians with alleged relationships with Hamas, saying it had “blood on its hands” in a series of tweets. (RELATED: UN Agency Fires Staffers Who Allegedly Participated In Hamas Attack On Israel)

“Hamas exists not to govern Palestinians in Gaza but to murder Jews in Israel. UNRWA, long funded by your tax dollars, has been governing Gaza at the behest of Hamas so that Hamas, which sees governing as a distraction, could dedicate itself to murdering Jews in Israel. That the international community would cut a deal with the devil (i.e. Hamas) is so scandalous and shocking in its stupidity that it leaves one speechless,” Rep. Torres tweeted.

“The international community has blood on its hands. UNRWA has long been propagating Jew hatred in classrooms, and UNRWA employees have been implicated in the atrocities of October 7th,” he added in a subsequent post.

Ritchie’s tweets come amid the backdrop of many countries suspending funding to UNRWA following allegations that some of the employees of the agency allegedly participated in the Oct. 7 invasion of southern Israel, NBC News reported. An estimated 10 percent or 1,200 members of the Gazan staff of UNRWA are alleged to have ties to terrorist groups like Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, according to intelligence reports reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

“U[NRWA]’s problem is not just ‘a few bad apples’ involved in the October 7 massacre,” one Israeli high-ranking public official stated, according to the outlet. “The institution as a whole is a haven for Hamas’ radical ideology,” the official added.

Following the string of countries pulling their funding, UNRWA posted Sunday on Twitter that it is the largest aid organization in the Gaza Strip and that the assistance it provides, especially now during the war, is “indispensable.”

UNRWA was founded in 1949 as a relief and works program for Palestinian refugees and their descendants, according to the organization’s website. Some of these activities have come under heavy scrutiny. The schools that UNRWA runs have textbooks that praises violent struggle and promotes the erasure of Israel as well as antisemitism, according to a Nov. 2023 report by the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education.