US MB Groups Join Coalition Urging Congress to Restore UNRWA Funding

On 4 March 2025, Democ­ra­cy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) report­ed that it, along with 124 civ­il soci­ety orga­ni­za­tions, was call­ing on the US Con­gress to rein­state fund­ing for the Unit­ed Nations Relief and Works Agency for Pales­tine Refugees (UNRWA). Among the peti­tion sig­na­to­ries were sev­er­al groups in the US Mus­lim Broth­er­hood net­work, includ­ing Emgage Action and MPow­er Change. The arti­cle begins:

As Gaza faces a human­i­tar­i­an cat­a­stro­phe, UNRWA remains the back­bone of aid dis­tri­b­u­tion, edu­ca­tion, and health­care for mil­lions of Pales­tini­ans. Despite unsub­stan­ti­at­ed polit­i­cal attacks, oth­er UN mem­ber states have resumed fund­ing, leav­ing the U.S. as an out­lier.” The let­ter to Con­gress urges co-spon­sor­ship of the UNRWA Fund­ing Emer­gency Restora­tion Act of 2025. The orga­ni­za­tions high­light UNR­WA’s crit­i­cal role in pro­vid­ing food, med­ical care, and edu­ca­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly in Gaza and the West Bank. Since Octo­ber 2023, UNRWA has deliv­ered two-thirds of Gaza’s food aid, shel­tered over a mil­lion dis­placed peo­ple, and facil­i­tat­ed med­ical con­sul­ta­tions for thou­sands dai­ly. Sig­na­to­ries empha­size that UNRWA’s work remains indis­pens­able amid ongo­ing insta­bil­i­ty and warn that with­hold­ing U.S. sup­port could exac­er­bate the human­i­tar­i­an cri­sis. The let­ter also stress­es that UNRWA has addressed con­cerns over neu­tral­i­ty, lead­ing many nations to resume funding.

Read more 

Key Points:

• DAWN and oth­er US Mus­lim Broth­er­hood orga­ni­za­tions urged Con­gress to rein­state US fund­ing for Pales­tin­ian relief agency UNRWA.
• UNRWA pro­vides human­i­tar­i­an aid to Pales­tin­ian refugees.
• Oth­er UN mem­ber states have resumed fund­ing, while the US remains a holdout.
• The orga­ni­za­tions stressed that UNRWA’s pres­ence was “cru­cial” for sta­bil­i­ty in the region.