Urge Congress to Restore UNRWA Funding for Palestinians

Let us not allow ourselves to be overcome by indifference towards those who suffer, for God is not indifferent to our distress. In becoming man, Jesus took upon himself our fragility, identifying with each one of us: with those who have nothing left and have lost everything, like the inhabitants of Gaza; with those who are prey to hunger and poverty, like the Yemeni people; with those who are fleeing their homeland to seek a future elsewhere, like the many refugees and migrants who cross the Mediterranean or traverse the American continent;

-Pope Leo XIV, “Urbi et Orbi” message, 25 December 2025

Urge Congress to Restore UNRWA Funding for Palestinians

Of the 2.1 million Palestinians living in Gaza, 1.6 million face catastrophic or emergency levels of famine, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), and all of them are experiencing acute food security at the very least. The resumption of U.S. funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) would help to relieve the severe hunger faced by the Palestinian people.

Bills are pending in both houses of Congress that would restore funding to UNRWA. As advocates gather on Capitol Hill today to press for passage of S.898 and H.R. 2411, please use the draft email in the grey box at right (below on mobile devices) to contact your members of Congress and ask for their support on these bills that would avert further human suffering.

Background

Despite the significant steps UNRWA took to address unsubstantiated allegations that employees participated in the October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and to improve screening of future employees, our government continues to be one of the few that has not restored or increased funding to UNRWA. UNRWA has been serving Palestinian refugees in the region since the Nakba (i.e., Catastrophe) began in 1948. This bill would not only restore a significant source of funding to the agency but also make a public declaration that could place pressure on the Israeli government to permit the agency to return to work within the bounds of Israel’s controlled territories. The Senate has six cosponsors, and the House bill now has 74, as it continues to gain momentum.