Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and 10 others threaten to withhold funding united nations and Palestinians if the General Assembly holds a vote to remove Israel from membership.

Last month, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas asked the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) that Israel’s membership to be suspended and promised to bring a resolution to that effect, prompting threats of congressional retaliation.

“We call on your esteemed Assembly to suspend Israel’s membership in the General Assembly until it fulfills its obligations and conditions of membership and implements all resolutions of the United Nations and its bodies,” Abbas said. “We will submit a request to the President of the United Nations General Assembly in this regard.”

Cruz, a Republican who has been briefed on the issue by US and Israeli officials, led 10 of his colleagues in threatening reprisals from Congress for such a move.

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“If Israel is suspended from the UN General Assembly, we will move to limit US participation and funding within the UN, including programs, funds, and other UN entities and bodies,” reads the letter, obtained by Fox News Digital.

“The Palestinian Authority and the PLO should be treated as terrorist groups under US law. The United Nations is full of nations hostile to America and our allies,” Cruz said in a statement.

“For decades, American lawmakers have not only ignored these facts, they have sent American taxpayer dollars to incentivize these Palestinian groups and the UN to allow them to operate. If the Palestinians go through with their plan to suspend Israel or if the UN agrees, we are committed to ensuring that America reevaluates those relationships and suspends those organizations.”

It is unclear how the Palestinian Authority plans to move forward with the request. It could table a resolution or follow a path used to alienate South Africa in 1974, bringing the matter before the UN Credentials Committee and seeking to have the Israeli government stripped of its ability to represent its nation before the assembly.

The US and many European nations could vote against a motion to remove Israel. Russia can do the same, fearing that a similar tactic might be used against them.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called for Israel’s membership to be suspended and promised to introduce a resolution to that effect, prompting threats of retaliation from Congress. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

The IDF said it ended its operation in the Bani Suheila area of ​​Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, destroying infrastructure used by Hamas. (Israel Defense Forces)

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Last month, about two-thirds of the UN voted in favor of a resolution demanding that Israel return all land and property it has established in the Palestinian Territories since 1967. It also called on nations to end treaties and trade relations with Israel in which the Palestinian territories are involved.

For the US-Palestine relationship, “cooperation with the Palestinian Authority, ending assistance to the West Bank and Gaza, ending all Palestinian-related offices in the US government, including the Palestinian-facing consulate and the Office of Palestinian Affairs, and the general curtailment of diplomatic activities, economic and security commitments between US and Palestinian officials”.

The US has paid more than $1.2 billion in aid to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza since the outbreak of war after October 7, 2023. It has given Israel about $12.5 billion in military aid over the same time period.

Earlier this week, about 100 MPs signed a letter warning that UN funding could be at stake if it triggers Israel over its Gaza war with Hamas.

A Palestinian man walks past rubble after Israeli forces withdrew from the area around the Kamal Adwan hospital in Jabalia, northern Gaza Strip, on October 26, 2024. (REUTERS/Stringer)

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“We are writing to express our deep concern about potential efforts by the Palestinian Authority to degrade Israel’s status at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) and to deprive the State of Israel of its key privileges in the body,” a letter led by Rep. Mike Lawler . , RN.Y., and Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., read.

“Any downgrading of Israel’s status or status at the AGM will result in a corresponding downgrading of US financial, material and political support for the UN.”

In his speech last month, Abbas argued that Israel had failed to implement UN resolution 181, which called for the partition of Palestine into two separate states, one Arab and one Jewish, with Jerusalem placed under a special international regime and the resolution 194, which called for Palestinian refugees to be able to return to their homes.

“Israel, which refuses to implement UN resolutions, is not worthy of membership in this international organization, and Israel, whose representative in this international organization says that this UN building, in which we are now, should be removed from the ground, does not deserve to be a member of your organization and did not meet the conditions for this membership from the beginning,” Abbas said.

On Monday, US and Israeli intelligence chiefs met in Qatar to resume negotiations on a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of the Israeli hostages.

The UN Security Council met on Monday at Iran’s request to discuss Israel’s attacks on the regime over the weekend.

“The Israeli regime’s actions pose a serious threat to international peace and security and further destabilize an already fragile region,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said in a letter to the 15-member council on Saturday.

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“The Islamic Republic of Iran, in accordance with the principles enshrined in the United Nations Charter and international law, reserves its inherent right to a legal and legitimate response to these criminal attacks at the appropriate time,” he wrote.