U.S. House Votes to Reform U.N. and Block Palestinian Statehood

A few weeks ago, the ACLJ called for the U.S. Government to defund the United Nations (U.N.) if they voted to grant unilateral statehood to the terrorist-led Palestinian Authority. We asked you to support legislation being introduced in Congress to reform and defund the U.N. Over 30,000 of you responded, signing our Petition to Defund the United Nations and Protect Israel. Now, that legislation is moving through Congress and has overcome the first hurdle toward true reform of the U.N. We need thousands more to show their support for this legislation by signing this petition.

For far too long, the U.S. has funded an enormous portion of the U.N. (22% of the general fund last year, plus billions for other voluntary programs and peacekeeping efforts), but has received very little of value in return. To the contrary, the U.N. continues to have an atrocious record on human rights, anti-Semitism, and a whole host of other matters. It has been our position that if the U.N., and all of its subsidiaries, wants U.S. funding, it must demonstrate that it will abide by the charters governing it.

That is why we applaud the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee for passing H.R. 2829, the United Nations Transparency, Accountability, and Reform Act, earlier today. The bill is sponsored by Chairman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who recent appeared on Jay Sekulow Live! to discuss the bill.

H.R. 2829 does a number of important things, including converting the U.N. funding formula to one that is almost entirely voluntary. This would allow the U.S. and other member nations to fund only those entities which are upholding the charter establishing them. It would also provide a strong layer of accountability for each of those entities.

The bill would also strip funding for any U.N. entity that unilaterally upgrades the Palestinian Authority from its current observer entity status at the U.N., instead of through a negotiated agreement with Israel. This threat to withhold funding for such an upgrade should have come from the Obama Administration months ago.

H.R. 2829 would also require critical reforms at the Human Rights Council, as well as mandate that the clearly flawed and anti-Israel Goldstone Report be discarded.

Chairman Ros-Lehtinen should be applauded for her leadership in moving U.N. reform forward, and we should call for passage of H.R. 2829 by the full U.S. House and U.S. Senate. Enactment of this important legislation would go a long way towards putting the U.N. back on the right track. Unless reforms such as those outlined in this bill are enacted, the U.N. will continue to demand ever-increasing amounts of U.S. taxpayer dollars, while continuing to provide ever-bleaker returns.

Please join in our support for this important legislation reforming the U.N. by signing our petition here.