In Case You Missed It: Capito, Colleagues Introduce Stand with Israel Act

WASHINGTON, D.C - Recently, U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) joined 33 of her Senate Republican colleagues in introducing the Stand with Israel Act. This legislation, which was led by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Jim Risch (R-Idaho), would cut off U.S. funding to United Nations (UN) agencies that expel, downgrade, suspend, or otherwise restrict the participation of the State of Israel. The legislation is also companion legislation to bipartisan House bill HR 9394 led by Congressman Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.).

"The UN and its agencies have increasingly become a platform for anti-Israel forces to target the world's only Jewish state. At the same time, countries like Iran and Russia have been free to maintain their status while launching ballistic missiles at their neighbors. If this ridiculous project to downgrade the membership of Israel-a free, democratic country and rightful member state-moves forward in the UN, the U.S. has no choice but to finally withdraw all support from a failed institution," Senator Capito said.

BACKGROUND:

• Reports indicate that the Palestinian Authority (PA) will attempt to downgrade Israel's status at the UN.

• The PA is able to do this after the UN General Assembly passed a biased resolution, which enhanced the PA's status at the United Nations on May 10, 2024.

• The Stand with Israel Act would cut off U.S. funding to UN agencies that expel, downgrade, suspend, or otherwise restrict the participation of the State of Israel. The bill is modeled after the current prohibition of funding to any UN entities that elevate the status of the PA to a member state.

• Senator Capito has supported other efforts to hold the UN accountable for targeting the State of Israel, including a joint statement in response to anti-Israel efforts at the recent UN General Assembly.

• Senator Capito also joined a December 2023 letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres after the UN's failure to condemn and investigate Hamas's acts of sexual violence on October 7.

Text of the Stand with Israel Act can be found here.

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