Elise Stefanik refuses to say if Palestinians have right to self-determination

US President Donald Trump's nominee for UN ambassador sidesteps questions on human rights and Middle East policy stance

President Donald Trump's nominee to be the next US ambassador to the UN, Elise Stefanik, has refused to say if Palestinians have the right to self-determination.

At her confirmation hearing on Tuesday, Ms Stefanik repeatedly sidestepped questions from Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen, saying: “I support human rights for all.”

She added: “We need to ensure that we are standing up for human rights, and Israel is standing up for human rights, it's the beacon of human rights.”

The hearing, which comes a day after Mr Trump's inauguration, saw an emboldened hostility towards the UN and a more aggressively pro-Israel posture as Republicans work to permanently defund the UN's Palestinian relief agency UNRWA.

Ms Stefanik told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that she agrees with Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich that Israel has a biblical claim to the occupied Palestinian territories and condemned what she called “the anti-Semitic rot inside the United Nations”.

She said that Mr Trump has endorsed a “commitment to defunding” UNRWA and advocated for transitioning support for Palestinians away from the agency and moving efforts under the purview of the UNHCR.

“We should never tolerate any US taxpayer funds going towards terrorism … [UN agencies] still need reform efforts and modernisation, but they don't have the terror ties that UNRWA had,” she told the committee.

Democratic committee member Senator Chris Murphy argued that UNRWA had addressed "almost all" of Washington's concerns and that most partners had resumed funding.

"You cannot keep the peace if you don't feed people," Mr Murphy told The National after the hearing. "I just think if you're sincere about peace in that region, you've got to find a way to be supportive of the reformed."

Pro-Israel and anti-UNRWA sentiment is not new in Washington, but is expected to grow more strident under the new administration and Republican-led Congress.

The Democratic Joe Biden administration was frequently a global outlier in the use of its veto power on Security Council efforts to pass Gaza ceasefire resolutions. The Biden administration also halted US funding to UNRWA in the aftermath of claims that some of its employees had participated in the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel.

US envoy to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield casts a veto vote during a UN Security Council meeting on the Israel-Hamas war, at UN Headquarters in New York City on February 20 last year. AFP

According to the State Department, the pause prevented approximately $300,000 in unobligated FY2024 funds and just over $2.5 million in obligated but unpaid balances for FY2023 from being disbursed to UNRWA.

Republicans have since worked to make cuts permanent, including Senator James Risch, who has previously said the whole of Congress wants to completely shut UNRWA down. Nearly every Republican on the committee asked Ms Stefanik about the Palestinian relief agency.

Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA, warned last week that agency’s disintegration jeopardises the Israel-Gaza ceasefire deal, and would “immeasurably” worsen Palestinian living conditions in Gaza.

The nominee, currently a Republican congresswoman, has been a leading conservative voice on Israel on Capitol Hill, equating anti-Zionism to anti-Semitism.

Senator Tom Cotton, the Republican leading legislation to strip the term occupied West Bank from any official US reference and instead use the Judeo-Christian “Judea and Samaria”, was one of the leaders to introduce Ms Stefanik at the confirmation hearing.

Republicans heralded the Abraham Accords as an example of diplomatic success that had “absolutely no involvement” of the UN.

Mr Risch praised the Accords, which he said would be “looked at in history as a turning point … so we can do these things. We put a tremendous amount of money into the United Nations to do things that we can do.”

Senator Jean Shaheen, the top Democrat on the committee, noted she believes Ms Stefanik is “qualified” but issued concerns about the Trump nominee's move to defund the UN and “its specialised agencies”, as well as the broader anti-UN rhetoric from the Trump administration.

Ms Shaheen countered that the UN is “flawed” but a “force multiplier” for the US.

Mr Murphy also pressed Ms Stefanik on Elon Musk's alleged fascist salute at the Trump inaugural parade on Monday.

Elon Musk’s hand gesture at Trump inauguration event draws scrutiny

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Ms Stefanik defended Mr Musk, a supporter with a cozy relationship to Mr Trump and the world's richest man, and said the gesture was not a Nazi salute.

“Elon Musk did not do those salutes … that is simply not the case, to say so the American people are smart, they see through it,” she said. “What concerns me is this is what the question you are most important to ask the UN ambassador.”

Mr Murphy accused her response as a partisan defence that diminishes the credibility of her work to combat anti-Semitism: “I simply don't believe that if a member of the [progressive] squad made that same gesture last night that there wouldn't be commentary from you and others,” he said.

Ms Stefanik also added that Washington must be “cautious and judicious” with the new leadership in Syria, and said that UNSC 2254 is “a starting point” for international policy towards Syria in the aftermath of the historic ousting of Bashar Al Assad.