(USNewsMag.com) – On Oct. 30, Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna introduced a bipartisan bill to withhold U.S. funding for the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) until the council passes a resolution condemning Hamas.
Under the Stand With Israel Act, until a resolution is adopted by both the U.N. General Assembly and U.N. Security Council that condemns Hamas, taxpayer funds will be prohibited from going toward the UNHRC.
In a statement, Luna said that passing a resolution condemning the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas “should not be a heavy lift for the UN.” She added that the U.S. should stop funding the council “until it stops targeting our closest ally.”
One of the bill’s co-sponsors, New Jersey Rep. Jeff Van Drew, called the UN’s failure to condemn the Hamas attacks “an absolute disgrace to the international community.”
Other co-sponsors of the bill include Democrats. Florida Rep. Jared Moskowitz as well as Republicans Arizona Rep. Andy Bigg, Illinois Rep. Mary Miller, Indiana Rep. Victoria Spartz, Missouri Rep. Eric Burlison, New York Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, New York Rep. George Santos, Oklahoma Rep. Josh Brecheen, Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles, Texas Rep. Brian Babin, Texas Rep. Lance Gooden, Texas Rep. Randy Weber, and Utah Rep. John Curtis
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres is currently facing calls to resign because of a speech that critics, including Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, said rationalized the actions of Hamas on Oct. 7.
In a statement, Guterres said he was “shocked by the misrepresentations” of some of his statements. He added that he was not “justifying acts of terror by Hamas” and that “it was the opposite.”
This is not the first time the UN has been accused of antisemitism. A resolution was passed in 1975 by the majority of U.N. member states equating Zionism, the founding philosophy of the state of Israel, with racism. In 1991, the resolution was overturned by member states. However, critics say it damaged the reputation of Israel, the only democratic state in the Middle East.
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