Former US national security adviser Mike Waltz told senators during a hearing on Tuesday that he would work to dismantle the UN agency for Palestinian refugees if confirmed to be the Trump administration’s ambassador to the United Nations.
“UNRWA in Gaza, with its staff involved in the October 7 massacre, its schools teaching antisemitic hate, must be dismantled,” Waltz said.
The US was the largest donor to the UN Relief and Works Agency, which was the main organization behind the distribution of humanitarian aid in Gaza. But UNRWA has come under fire after it was revealed that several of its employees actively participated in the Hamas-led October 7 onslaught. The US has since pulled its funding to the agency, which as a result is facing a financial crisis.
Israel has passed legislation outlawing UNRWA in its territory, while significantly curbing the agency’s operations in Gaza and the West Bank.
Speaking more broadly about “pervasive antisemitism” at the UN, which he pledged to challenge, Waltz noted that from 2015 to 2023, the General Assembly passed 154 resolutions against Israel, compared to 71 against all other nations combined.
The UN’s reappointment of special rapporteur on Palestinian rights Francesca Albanese, who has called for boycotting US companies that do business with Israel, “highlights this bias,” Waltz said. The US sanctioned Albanese last week.
He also pledged to continue US President Donald Trump’s track-record of blocking Security Council resolutions seen as biased against Israel.
Grilled by Democrats who felt the US should take a harder line against Israel over its prosecution of the war in Gaza, Waltz acknowledged that a humanitarian crisis is unfolding there but insisted that it could end immediately if Hamas would lay down its arms and surrender, rather than “sacrificing their own people.”
Waltz was not Trump’s first pick to become UN ambassador. The US president nominated New York Representative Elise Stefanik for the role, only to withdraw the submission amid concerns about losing her seat in Congress to a Democrat in a special election.
Trump nominated Waltz after ousting him as national security adviser in May, after he mistakenly added a journalist to a private Signal chat used to discuss military plans to attack the Houthis. A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the UN post would not include a seat on Trump’s cabinet.
Democratic lawmakers hammered Waltz over the affair, but the former Florida congressman defended his conduct and insisted that no classified information was shared on the Signal chat.
“I’ve watched this hearing, and I’ve been really disappointed,” Senator Corey Booker of New Jersey said. “What’s been troubling to me about your nomination from the beginning is your failure to just stand up and take accountability for mistakes that you made.”
For his part, Waltz said he would work to enact significant reforms at the UN if confirmed, namely by making sure that every dollar spent advances the American national interest.
But after blasting what he branded as wasteful spending at the UN, Democrat Senator Jacky Rosen of Nevada asked Waltz why he was still being paid a salary from the White House when he had been removed from his post of national security adviser two months ago.
Waltz denied the fact that he had been fired, saying he was being paid as an adviser “transitioning a number of important activities.”
Agencies contributed to this report.