Will UNRWA Be Held Accountable?

Critics have long accused the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) of inflaming the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The agency has allegedly incited and facilitated violence and reportedly played a role in the deadly October 7 attacks in Israel. 

Victims of UNRWA’s actions have turned to American courts in search of justice. Their claims, as Tal Fortgang notes, raise a pressing and novel question: “What happens when violations of international law are committed not by a rogue actor but by an agency of the United Nations itself?” 

In a piece for City Journal’s Spring issue, Fortgang examines Siman Tov v. UNRWA, a 2024 case that aims to answer exactly that. At the heart of the case, he writes, “is whether the United States should continue treating international organizations as if they were sovereign entities—when in reality, many have become unaccountable slush funds for malign actors.” 

Manhattan Institute senior fellow Rob Henderson argues that Zohran Mamdani embodies the rise of “luxury beliefs” in the Democratic Party: ideas that earn praise from the affluent but impose real costs on others. 

As Mamdani’s elite supporters cheered his anti-police and affordability platforms, low-income voters—those most likely to feel the impact of such policies—backed his opponent, Andrew Cuomo. 

“The November mayoral race is shaping up as a contest between the luxury-belief class and everyone else,” Henderson writes. Voting for a socialist helps wealthy progressives ease their guilt—but what will the consequences be? 

Following an investigation by the Department of Education, the University of Pennsylvania has agreed to bar male athletes from competing in women’s sports, adopt biologically based definitions of “male” and “female,” and reinstate the titles, records, and accolades earned by female athletes displaced by trans-identified male swimmer Lia Thomas. 

Predictably, several mainstream media outlets mishandled the story, obscuring plain facts and distorting science in service of gender ideology. But that narrative is becoming harder to sustain, argues Colin Wright, an evolutionary biologist and MI fellow. 

“This correction was inevitable,” Wright notes. “Reality, in the end, reasserts itself.” 

Charles Fain Lehman, Neetu Arnold, Judge Glock, and Carolyn Gorman discuss the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, President Trump’s tour of “Alligator Alcatraz,” and reasons to be proud to be American. 

Photo credit: Saeed Qaq/Anadolu via Getty Images