Palmetto State News

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced he was co-leading a group of 26 total states in writing a letter to U.S. Congressional leadership with the call to pull funding from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) on the basis of having ties to terrorism. The letter was co-led by Iowa. 

UNWRA announced on Jan. 26 that they had fired over a dozen employees for having a hand in the Hamas terrorist attack in Oct. Previous incidents also tie the agency to terrorist organization, having previously employed a school principal who was discovered to be an Islamic Jihad bomber. Another school teacher has been accused to holding an Oct. 7 hostage for two months. 

Former President Donald Trump cut all federal funding to the organization in 2018 after learning of the agency’s ties to terrorism. President Biden reinstated their funding on the first day of his term. 

“There is no reason to fund organizations that support terrorist operations,” the letter said. “It is abundantly clear, and has been for some time, that UNRWA does just that.” 

States joining South Carolina and Iowa in the letter include Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.