US Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas). Photo: Michael Vadon/ Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – US Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) introduced a bill on Thursday that seeks to cut off funding for the United Nations until UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which condemned Israel’s settlement policy, is repealed.

The bill — titled “The Safeguard Israel Act” — will cut off funding to the UN until the president certifies to Congress that Resolution 2334 has been repealed.

“Twenty-two percent of the money to fund the UN comes from the American taxpayer,” Graham said. “I don’t think it’s a good investment for the American taxpayer to give money to an organization that condemns the only democracy in the Mideast, and takes the settlement issue and says that’s the most important and only issue in terms of an impediment to peace.”

According to the senators, Resolution 2334 attempts to dictate terms and conditions for negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians, which is “an abandonment of longstanding policy of the United States and previous commitments made to Israel.”

Additionally, Graham and Cruz said the resolution “falsely claims” that Israel’s sovereignty over the eastern part of Jerusalem and Jewish communities in the West Bank is illegal under international law, and that the Old City of Jerusalem — along with the Western Wall and Temple Mount, the holiest sites for the Jewish people — are ‘‘occupied Palestinian territory.”

“President [Barack] Obama betrayed decades of robust bipartisan American support for Israel at the United Nations by permitting the passage of a biased resolution that condemns our close friend and ally,” Sen. Cruz said.