Ask your legislators to support aid to UN for Gaza

Many of your readers were no doubt shocked, as were we, to learn 12 employees of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) are suspected of participating in the terrorist attacks by Hamas against Israel on Oct. 7. In response, the 12 employees were fired, the U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres promised a “thorough and swift investigation.” Several nations, including the United States, suspended temporarily their funding of UNRWA.

UNRWA’s 13,000 employees across the Middle East provide vital humanitarian assistance to 6 million Palestinians, including 2 million in Gaza. As of Jan. 29, 152 UNRWA staff members in Gaza have been killed and 146 UNRWA schools and other facilities have been damaged.

Call upon our elected officials to support a resolution of the conflict that ensures that lifesaving aid continues to flow to the people of Gaza. The United Nations has been helping countries help each other for over 75 years by working to maintain international peace, giving humanitarian assistance, protecting human rights, and upholding international law. The U.N. depends on full funding to do its work. Please ask your senators and representatives to support full funding of the U.N.

John Fuller and Mercedes Bern-Klug

United Nations Association of Johnson County