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An American nonprofit that has raised tens of millions of {dollars} for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees within the Near East – generally referred to as UNRWA, – is being sued by 10 survivors and members of the family of slain victims of the Oct. 7 terrorist assaults on southern Israel who argue the U.S.-based group knowingly offered materials assist for Hamas and terrorist actions for years.
The lawsuit was filed earlier this month within the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware on behalf of Lishay Lavi, Noach Newman, Adin Gess, Maya Parizer, Natalie Sanandaji, Yoni Diller, Hagar Almog, David Bromberg, Lior Bar Or and Ariel Ein-Gal towards the UNRWA USA National Committee., claiming that UNRWA USA and UNRWA are “[i]nextricably [l]inked” in supporting Hamas.
“501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations generally do good work. They feed the hungry, help the poor, and house the homeless. But on some very rare occasions, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization finances an international terrorist plot that kills over 1,200 innocent people,” the lawsuit says. “This case involves one of those rare occasions.”
More than 1,200 Israelis have been killed, greater than 6,900 civilians are estimated to have been injured, and a whole bunch extra have been taken hostage when Hamas launched a shock assault in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
WHITE HOUSE PREPARING IN CASE CONGRESS MAKES UNRWA FUNDING PAUSE PERMANENT
From 2009 to 2024, just a little beneath $4 billion in taxpayer cash was given to the humanitarian aid group, in accordance to a Fox News Digital evaluation. (Mahmoud Issa/SOPA Images/LightRocket through Getty Images)
“During this attack, Hamas terrorists brutally beat, tortured, raped and murdered men, women, and children. But Hamas did not carry out these attacks alone. Rather, they were financed and aided by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and Defendant UNRWA USA National Committee, Inc. (“UNRWA USA”),” the swimsuit says.
Earlier this yr, the Israeli authorities accused 12 UNRWA workers of getting straight participated within the Oct. 7 assaults, prompting the U.S. and no less than a dozen different nations to briefly droop funding to the company amid a United Nations investigation.
But Mark Goldfeder, one of many attorneys for the plaintiffs, informed Fox News Digital that UNRWA USA didn’t droop sending cash to UNRWA till March 1.
“Way too little, way too late. They funded it up until the point, even after the reports came out of UNRWA staff literally participating in the massacre,” Goldfeder stated Wednesday. “Even after the United States suspended its own UNRWA donations, even after all of that, they continued fundraising, and they continued sending money.”
Protesters maintain indicators and flags in entrance of the UNRWA workplace in Jerusalem calling for its expulsion from town on Feb. 5, 2024. (Amir Levy/Getty Images)
“This is the largest private donor to UNRWA, and they have been materially and knowingly, actively, systematically using their quote unquote, charity, to operate a terrorist financing scheme in violation of federal law,” Goldfeder stated. “And it’s gotten to the point where the evidence is so overwhelming that even UNRWA USA has now suspended donations to UNRWA because they couldn’t deny it publicly anymore, but they knew all along what they were doing, and they need to be held accountable.”
The criticism alleges that UNRWA USA “has been and is fully aware that UNRWA works with and for Hamas, providing operational and financial support for their activities, and UNRWA USA aids, abets, and provides material support for those activities under the guise of humanitarian assistance.”
“UNRWA USA collects donations in the United States and then transfers nearly all its funds to UNRWA, which has significant operations in the Gaza Strip,” the lawsuit says. “Once the funds reach the Gaza Strip, UNRWA redistributes those funds to Hamas members on their payroll, some of whom are directly engaged in acts of terrorism, including but not limited to, the October 7th atrocities; to schools that are used to store Hamas’s weapons and other equipment; and to the production of educational materials that promote violence against Jews, including the destruction of the state of Israel.”
Fox News Digital reached out to UNRWA USA for touch upon the lawsuit, however they didn’t instantly reply.
The lawsuit alleges that UNRWA USA “raises and transfers such funds knowingly, willfully, and with the intention that the funds be used by a designated foreign terrorist organization and its members for terrorist purposes” and “knowingly, willfully, and intentionally works directly and indirectly in confederation and agreement with UNRWA, Hamas, and other terrorist organizations to provide material support to the designated foreign terrorist organizations and their members and for their terrorist activities.”
The criticism additionally states that as well as to having “common missions, finances, and activities,” UNRWA USA and UNRWA “also employ overlapping staff.” It cites posts on social media platform X wherein UNRWA USA described an UNRWA worker as a contract content material producer for UNRWA USA and described UNRWA workers as “colleagues.” The lawsuit additionally states that UNRWA USA board member Karen AbuZayd was appointed UNRWA commissioner-general in 2005, and that in April 2006 she “stated that she commonly met with Hamas and would continue to do so.”
The plaintiffs accuse UNRWA USA of violating the Anti-Terrorism Act and the Alien Tort Statute.
A bunch of seven Republican senators penned a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland final month demanding the Justice Department open a felony investigation into UNRWA USA, its principals and its management “for knowingly providing material support to foreign terrorist organizations, including Hamas.”
“This support facilitated and continues to facilitate terrorism, including the October 7 terrorist attack,” the letter penned by Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Roger Marshall, R-Ks., Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., Rick Scott, R-Fla., Pete Ricketts, R-Nebraska, and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., stated.
According to its 2021 annual report, UNRWA USA dispersed practically $5 million in donations to UNRWA that yr, making the group UNRWA’s largest institutional donor. In 2004, the senators additionally famous, the then-UNRWA Commissioner-General Peter Hansen stated in an interview, “I am sure there are Hamas members on the UNRWA payroll and I don’t see that as a crime.”
“That assessment is incorrect. It is in fact a crime,” the Feb. 15 letter from the senators stated.
Thousands of individuals led by the households of hostages march into Jerusalem on the fourth and remaining day of the “United for the Release the Hostages” march on March 2, 2024, in Jerusalem. The march started on the website of the Nova Festival at Re’im. (Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images)
In tandem with the civil litigation searching for financial damages, Goldfeder informed Fox News Digital he hopes the DOJ picks up the felony probe and holds UNRWA USA accountable.
On Feb. 13, the Senate handed a controversial $95 billion nationwide safety supplemental bundle to help Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific. It incorporates a provision that will block funding from going to UNRWA. The Biden administration stated it was ready on the outcomes of the United Nations’ investigation into UNRWA to resolve on whether or not to resume funding.
Growing bipartisan opposition to the aid company prompted the White House to discover alternative routes to present humanitarian help to Gaza ought to Congress completely halt UNRWA funding. The U.S. is UNRWA’s largest donor, normally contributing between $300 million to $400 million yearly.
Lavi, an Israeli citizen, is suing after her husband, Omri Miran, was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7 and nonetheless stays held hostage. Newman’s brother, David Yair Shalom Newman, was killed by Hamas terrorists on the Nova music competition. They each are and have been U.S.-Israeli twin residents.
Diller, Parizer, Bromberg and Or, twin U.S.-Israeli residents, and Sanandaji, a U.S. citizen visiting from New York, all managed to escape Hamas’ assault on the Nova competition after fleeing by automotive and foot – in some circumstances for hours – whereas beneath heavy gunfire and have been compelled to witness pals and fellow attendees being massacred. Ein-Gal, an Israeli citizen, was asleep on Zikim Beach when swarms of terrorists started infiltrating the coast by boat however managed to escape the assault alive. Gess, a U.S. citizen, and Almog, an Israeli citizen, weren’t house on their kibbutzes when Hamas attacked however witnessed the bloodbath of their group members on a shared WhatsApp group family members used to beg for assist.
“They have been through hell. Each of them have been through their own individual hell, and they are still, many of them, in hell,” Goldfeder stated of the plaintiffs.
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Around 10% of UNRWA’s Gaza workers have hyperlinks to the Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist organizations, and 50% have shut kin who belong to these teams, in accordance to UN Watch.
“UNRWA has demonstrated time and time and time again that they are utterly, morally bankrupt. UNRWA is Hamas. In 2004, they admitted that they have Hamas on their payroll and they don’t think that’s a crime. Well, they’re wrong. Under American law, that is a crime. That’s material support for terror,” Goldfeder stated.
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