The US president has ordered the withdrawal of the US from the Human Rights Council and suspended financial support for the Palestinian refugee agency
US President Donald Trump has taken action against UN agencies that his administration claims exhibit an anti-American bias and propagate “anti-Semitism,” in an executive order signed on Tuesday. This comes amid Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington, DC.
Trump has ordered the withdrawal of the US from the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and prohibited the funding of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). He has also ordered a review of US participation in the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) by the State Department.
The three bodies have drifted from the UN’s core mission of promoting peace, and instead “act contrary to the interests of the United States while attacking our allies and propagating anti-Semitism,” the document claimed.
West Jerusalem has accused the UNHRC and UNESCO of anti-Israeli bias when handling cases related to Palestinian rights and cultural heritage. It also alleged that UNRWA employees took part in the October 2023 surprise attack by the Palestinian group Hamas, which resulted in Israel responding with a 15-month military campaign – currently paused under a UN-brokered ceasefire.
The UNRWA, established in 1949 to assist Palestinians displaced in the Arab-Israeli conflict, has denied these allegations. Trump’s order insists that the UNRWA has been “infiltrated” by terrorists and echoes Israeli claims that the group was involved in the Hamas incursion.
During a signing ceremony in the Oval Office, Trump said the UN has “tremendous potential” that merits continued US support, provided that its leaders “get their act together.” He stressed that the UN must be “fair to countries that deserve fairness,” without naming any nations. Trump also suggested that the US makes a disproportionate contribution to the UN budget. The UN system is primarily funded by member states based on their gross national incomes.
The first Trump administration pulled the US out of the UNHRC and defunded the UNRWA in 2018. In 2021, President Joe Biden reversed these actions during his term in office.
Speaking alongside Netanyahu on Tuesday, Trump announced that the US will “take over” and “own” Gaza and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.” He reiterated his position that the Palestinians should be permanently resettled elsewhere, which critics argue would amount to the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian enclave.
The UN estimates that over 90% of homes in Gaza have been destroyed or seriously damaged in the latest escalation of violence, resulting in the displacement of an overwhelming majority of the local population, or around 1.9 million people. On Monday, the local authorities updated the death toll in the enclave to over 61,700, saying they now presume thousands of missing individuals to be dead.
