U.S. postponed U.N. vote to fund Palestine Refugee Agency

"A controversial General Assembly vote to increase the U.N.'s, and consequently the U.S.'s, funding of a Palestinian refugee agency was postponed Friday, a move that an unhappy Palestinian ambassador suggested to Breitbart News was because of U.S. opposition.

The resolution up for a vote, first reported by the New York Post's Benny Avni, would increase the funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). The agency has proved controversial in part because Palestine is alone in having its own refugee body – all other refugees are covered by the U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR) – but also because of its alleged anti-Israel bias and linksto Hamas...

A letter signed by all 100 U.S. Senators in April called on UNRWA to 'pursue reforms or risk significant consequences.' The Times of Israel noted at that time that a third of UNRWA's budget comes from the U.S. Fox News reported that the U.S. donates $600 million a year to the body.

But the resolution, recognizing what it calls the "extremely critical financial situation" of UNRWA, recommends 'a gradual increase in the support to be provided to the Agency from the regular budget of the United Nations.'

This is controversial as it would not only give more money to UNRWA, but it would place an ever-increasing burden on the U.N.'s general budget, of which the U.S. is the greatest contributor. As the New York Post noted: 'Eventually the entirety of America's contribution to UNRWA will be decided by U.N. members rather than Congress.'

The move was one unlikely to be received well by Republican members of Congress.

'I have a deep concern with shifting UNRWA funding to the U.N.'s regular budget,' Sen. James Risch (R-ID) told Breitbart News. 'Just because other countries fail to honor their voluntary contributions should not require the American taxpayer to fund yet another U.N. program with a track record of poor management and support for terrorism.'

The resolution, scheduled to be taken up by the U.N. General Assembly Friday morning, was postponed just hours before the vote was due to take place.

A grumpy Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour told a handful of reporters that the vote had been postponed. Breitbart News asked why this was. 'I'll leave it your imagination why,' he responded, 'especially since we have 147 co-sponsors not counting the Europeans, who are endorsing unanimously, so if you have that, you have close to 177 co-sponsors.'

When Breitbart News asked if the American delegation had been loud in opposing the measure, Mansour said: 'You are on the right track.'..."