A quick update for you on where we are.

The House of Representatives is debating the funding package that contains the ban on UNRWA funding RIGHT NOW. If the bill does not pass, you can expect 1) another continuing resolution, or 2) a partial government shutdown tonight. For you and our community, in relation to UNRWA aid, you still have time to act.

Please take a moment to complete the action alert—and share it with others so that the voices demanding US official policy not be the starvation of the Palestinian people are heard.

Thank you for all that you are doing.

Maya

Friend,

Your help is needed once again to stop an inhumane ban on funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

The final six appropriation bills have been rolled into one massive $1.2 trillion funding package and it is expected to be voted on in Congress TOMORROW. This huge funding bill includes a ban on any direct U.S. funding of UNRWA until March 2025. UNRWA is the single most effective relief agency operating in Gaza today, providing vital life-saving assistance. For Congress to pass such a brutal measure during Israel's unfolding genocidal campaign in Gaza is unconscionable.

Demonstrating a failure to lead at this critical time, instead of actively opposing this congressional action, the Biden Administration seems to have signaled they would not oppose the ban in the bill. Further, they had already “paused” funding to UNRWA based on unsubstantiated allegations by Israel. And now, instead of joining Canada, the European Union, and others who have reinstated aid to UNRWA, our government policies are failing the Palestinian people again—all while the humanitarian crisis affecting 2.2 million civilians in Gaza grows more desperate. Today, some people in Gaza are dying from starvation, millions have no access to adequate medical care, food, or clean water.

For many, the humanitarian aid provided by UNRWA is the difference between life and death.

Making matters worse, UNRWA provides critical programs to millions of Palestinian refugees in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria. In addition to food assistance to people, some of whom are now facing famine, UNRWA's programs include education and health services to nearly six million Palestinian refugees. This attack on UNRWA is part of a larger, longstanding campaign to discredit the agency and to further harm Palestinian refugees.

Please take two steps RIGHT NOW to help the Palestinian people by contacting your member of Congress and the White House.

I know you won't stop calling and emailing and I thank you for all you are doing.

-Maya

Arab American Institute Foundation
1600 K Street, NW, Suite 601
Washington, DC 20006
United States