Tipsheet

In Case You Need Any More Reasons to Defund the UN, Here's What Their Court Said About Israel

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  January 26, 2024 3:30 PM

Friday has not been the finest day for the United Nations. As Spencer covered earlier, even the Biden administration was concerned enough that the State Department decided to temporarily pause aid for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) after it was revealed that some of their workers were fired for participating in the October 7 terrorist attack that Hamas perpetrated against Israel. Now, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the UN's top court, is allowing a genocide case against Israel, brought by South Africa of all places and as the International Holocaust Remembrance Day approaches, to proceed.

Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) lamented the news over his X account on Friday morning as he shared coverage from Just the News. He also did so with a reminder, though, which is that Congress has the opportunity to defund the UN, and yet declines to do so.

House Republicans, as Roy called them out for in his post, funded the organization just last week when one more of their members than not voted in favor of yet another continuing resolution (CR) to prevent a government shutdown. This time there's deadlines of March 1 and March 8 Funding the UN was among Roy's chief complaints about this CR. He and other conservative Republicans have even addressed the option of filling a motion to vacate the chair against Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), although Johnson has said he's not worried.

While just a bare majority of House Republicans voted for the CR, a member reportedly switched his or her vote so as to ensure that majority. Still, more Democrats than Republicans supported the CR, which has been the case for previous CRs and when Congress voted last year to raise the debt ceiling.

Roy has also presented Congress with another opportunity to defund the UN with a bill that he and Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL) introduced in the House last month. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced the Senate version. Lee and Roy also used news about the State Department to issue a reminder about their bill.

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Rogers also issued a post about the State Department's announcement declaring "Not one more US dollar to the UN!"

As Townhall has been covering, the anti-Israel UN has been, at best, slow to properly condemn Hamas for atrocities committed against Israel from the start, with a distorted sense of priorities and clear bias towards sympathizing more with Gaza. This is hardly the only concern with the UNRWA, as it was revealed last year that one of their workers assisted Hamas in keeping a hostage.

Both the pro-Israel and pro-Hamas sides have referenced various parts of the ICJ's decision from Friday, as the court ordered Israel to prevent genocide, but expressed concern for hostages and did not call for a permanent ceasefire. Groups such as Code Pink and IfNotNow have used the decision to repeat their narratives of calling for a ceasefire.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded with a video message reaffirming that "Israel's commitment to international law is unwavering" and that "equally unwavering is our sacred commitment to continue to defend our country and defend our people," as well as how Israel "will continue to do what is necessary to defend our country and defend our people."

The charge of genocide, Netanyahu noted "is not only false, it’s outrageous, and decent people everywhere should reject it."

He also reminded what so many Hamas sympathizers fail to keep in mind, which is that Hamas "vows to repeat these atrocities again and again and again," though Netanyahu pointed out their "war is against Hamas terrorists, not against Palestinian civilians" and so they will "continue to facilitate humanitarian assistance, and to do our utmost to keep civilians out of harm's way, even as Hamas uses civilians as human shields."