Motivated by the urgent need to prevent death by starvation of masses of Palestinian men, women and children, members of ORUCC’s Palestine Justice Mission Team sent an urgent petition to President Joseph Biden.

The petition recognizes the vital role that UNRWA (the United Nations Refugee and Works Administration) plays in the lives of everyday Palestinians, including Palestinian families in Gaza facing starvation and imminent death from lack of UNRWA-supplied food. The petition recognizes that President Biden himself has cut off funds for UNRWA, and requests that he restore these critically needed funds. The petition concludes with this call to action:  

“Your administration’s decision to cancel UNRWA funding was taken despite calls from the United Nations and numerous humanitarian organizations to increase aid to Gaza, in the face of a rapidly rising toll of deaths by starvation and disease. This action to cancel UNRWA funding, taken on the flimsiest of excuses, makes the US complicit in the very genocide the ICJ has warned against. It also highlights the gap between your administration and the overwhelming majority of US citizens, many of whom have marched in the streets demanding a ceasefire, demanding an end to US funding of Israel’s longstanding military occupation, and showing care for and solidarity with the men, women and children of Gaza. We request that you restore funding to UNRWA.”

Read the full text of the petition below. We signed this petition as individual members and friends of ORUCC, and not on behalf of the entire congregation.

February 27, 2024

The Honorable Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Request that you restore US funding to UNRWA to its historic level prior to the election of Donald Trump as president   

Dear President Biden:

We write to you as members and friends of the Orchard Ridge United Church of Christ congregation in Madison, Wisconsin. 

We urgently request you restore funding to UNWRA to its historic level prior to the election of Donald Trump as president. 

The United Nations Relief & Works Agency (UNRWA) is a hardworking, respectable agency created in 1949 to meet the immediate needs of Palestinian refugees who had been ethnically cleansed from their homes in 1948. The organization runs refugee camps for displaced Palestinians in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, the West Bank, and Gaza. It has three major areas of service: Education (through UNRWA schools), Health (through its clinics), and Social Services. The organization undertakes essential, urgently needed work which is performed by UNRWA staff most of whom are, themselves, Palestinian refugees. Today, UNRWA serves about 5.7 million Palestinian refugees. 

On January 26 the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israel to take steps to prevent acts of genocide and improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza. Yet, the very day after this decision was announced, US funding was pulled from UNRWA.   

In an effort to divert attention from this powerful, bold decision by the ICJ, Israel announced without furnishing any proof that 12 out of the 13,000 employees of UNRWA were involved in the attacks of October 7. In response to these accusations, UNRWA fired the 12 accused employees. Yet, this dismissal was not enough for those in the US (and elsewhere) who demanded UNRWA be punished, possibly dismantled, and prevented from continuing its humanitarian mission. 

Your administration’s decision to cancel UNRWA funding was taken despite calls from the United Nations and numerous humanitarian organizations to increase aid to Gaza, in the face of a rapidly rising toll of deaths by starvation and disease. This action to cancel UNRWA funding, taken on the flimsiest of excuses, makes the US complicit in the very genocide the ICJ has warned against. It also highlights the gap between your administration and the overwhelming majority of US citizens, many of whom have marched in the streets demanding a ceasefire, demanding an end to US funding of Israel’s longstanding military occupation, and showing care for and solidarity with the men, woman and children of Gaza.

We request that you restore funding to UNRWA. 

Thank you.

• Category: Palestine