[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 85 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







110th CONGRESS
  1st Session
S. RES. 85

 Expressing the sense of the Senate regarding the creation of refugee 
  populations in the Middle East, North Africa, and the Persian Gulf 
             region as a result of human rights violations.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           February 16, 2007

  Mr. Lautenberg (for himself, Mr. Lott, Mr. Durbin, and Mr. Coleman) 
submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee 
                          on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
 Expressing the sense of the Senate regarding the creation of refugee 
  populations in the Middle East, North Africa, and the Persian Gulf 
             region as a result of human rights violations.

Whereas armed conflicts in the Middle East have created refugee populations 
        numbering in the hundreds of thousands and comprised of peoples from 
        many ethnic, religious, and national backgrounds;
Whereas Jews and other ethnic groups have lived mostly as minorities in the 
        Middle East, North Africa, and the Persian Gulf region for more than 
        2,500 years;
Whereas the United States has long voiced its concern about the mistreatment of 
        minorities and the violation of human rights in the Middle East and 
        elsewhere;
Whereas the United States continues to play a pivotal role in seeking an end to 
        conflict in the Middle East and continues to promote a peace that will 
        benefit all the peoples of the region;
Whereas a comprehensive peace in the Middle East region will require the 
        resolution of all outstanding issues through bilateral and multilateral 
        negotiations involving all concerned parties;
Whereas the United States has demonstrated interest and concern about the 
        mistreatment, violation of rights, forced expulsion, and expropriation 
        of assets of minority populations in general, and in particular, former 
        Jewish refugees displaced from Arab countries, as evidenced by--

    (1) a statement made by President William J. Clinton in an interview 
after Camp David II in July 2000, at which the issue of Jewish refugees 
displaced from Arab lands was discussed, where he said that ``[t]here will 
have to be some sort of international fund set up for the refugees. There 
is, I think, some interest, interestingly enough, on both sides, in also 
having a fund which compensates the Israelis who were made refugees by the 
war, which occurred after the birth of the State of Israel. Israel is full 
of people, Jewish people, who lived in predominantly Arab countries who 
came to Israel because they were made refugees in their own land.'';

    (2) a statement made by President Carter after negotiating the Camp 
David Accords, the Framework for Peace in the Middle East, where he stated 
in a press conference on October 27, 1977, that ``Palestinians have rights 
. . . obviously there are Jewish refugees . . . they have the same rights 
as others do'';

    (3) section 620 of H.R. 3100, 100th Congress, which states that 
Congress finds that ``with the notable exceptions of Morocco and Tunisia, 
those Jews remaining in Arab countries continue to suffer deprivations, 
degradations, and hardships, and continue to live in peril'' and that 
Congress calls upon the governments of those Arab countries where Jews 
still maintain a presence to guarantee their Jewish citizens full civil and 
human rights, including the right to lead full Jewish lives, free of fear, 
with freedom to emigrate if they so choose; and

    (4) Senate Resolution 76, 85th Congress, introduced by Senator William 
E. Jenner on January 29, 1957, which--

    G    (A) noted that individuals in Egypt who are tied by race, 
religion, or national origin with Israel, France, or the United Kingdom 
have been subjected to arrest, denial or revocation of Egyptian 
citizenship, expulsions, forced exile, sequestration and confiscation of 
assets and property, and other punishments without being charged with a 
crime; and

    G    (B) requested the President to instruct the chief delegate to the 
United Nations to urge the prompt dispatch of a United Nations observer 
team to Egypt with the objective of obtaining a full factual report 
concerning the violation of rights;

Whereas the international definition of a refugee clearly applies to Jews who 
        fled the persecution of Arab regimes, where a refugee is a person who 
        ``owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, 
        religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or 
        political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is 
        unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the 
        protection of that country'' (Convention relating to the Status of 
        Refugees, done at Geneva July 28, 1951, and entered into force April 22, 
        1954 (189 UNTS 150));
Whereas the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) determined 
        that Jews fleeing from Arab countries were refugees that fell within the 
        mandate of the UNHCR, namely--

    (1) when in his first statement as newly elected High Commissioner, Mr. 
Auguste Lindt, at the January 29, 1957, meeting of the United Nations 
Refugee Fund (UNREF) Executive Committee in Geneva, stated, ``There is 
already now another emergency problem arising. Refugees from Egypt. And 
there is no doubt in my mind that those of those refugee who are not able 
or not willing to avail themselves of the protection of the Government of 
their nationality, they might have no nationality or they may have lost 
this nationality, or, for reasons of prosecution may not be willing to 
avail themselves of this protection, fall under the mandate of the High 
Commissioner.'' (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Report of 
the UNREF Executive Committee, Fourth Session-Geneva 29 January to 4 
February, 1957); and

    (2) Dr. E. Jahn, on behalf of the United Nations High Commissioner for 
Refugees, wrote to Daniel Lack, Legal Adviser to the American Joint 
Distribution Committee, stating, ``I refer to our recent discussion 
concerning Jews from Middle Eastern and North African countries in 
consequence of recent events. I am now able to inform you that such persons 
may be considered prima facie within the mandate of this Office.'' (United 
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Document No. 7/2/3/Libya);

Whereas the seminal United Nations resolution on the Arab-Israeli conflict and 
        other international initiatives refer generally to the plight of 
        ``refugees'' and do not make any distinction between Palestinian and 
        Jewish refugees, such as--

    (1) United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 of November 22, 
1967, which calls for a ``just settlement of the refugee problem'' without 
distinction between Palestinian and Jewish refugees, and this is evidenced 
by--

    G    (A) a failed attempt by the United Nations delegation of the 
Soviet Union to restrict the ``just settlement'' mentioned in Resolution 
242 solely to Palestinian refugees (S/8236, discussed by the Security 
Council at its 1382nd meeting on November 22, 1967, notably at paragraph 
117, in the words of Ambassador Kouznetsov of the Soviet Union), which 
signified the international community's intention of having the resolution 
address the rights of all Middle East refugees; and

    G    (B) a statement by Justice Arthur Goldberg, the Chief Delegate of 
the United States to the United Nations at that time, who was instrumental 
in drafting the unanimously adopted United Nations Resolution 242, where he 
observed, ``The resolution addresses the objective of `achieving a just 
settlement of the refugee problem'. This language presumably refers both to 
Arab and Jewish refugees, for about an equal number of each abandoned their 
homes as a result of the several wars.'';

    (2) the Madrid Conference, which was first convened in October 1991 and 
was co-chaired by President of the United States, George H.W. Bush, and 
President of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, and included delegations 
from Spain, the European community, the Netherlands, Egypt, Syria, and 
Lebanon, as well as a joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation, where in his 
opening remarks before the January 28, 1992, organizational meeting for 
multilateral negotiations on the Middle East in Moscow, United States 
Secretary of State James Baker made no distinction between Palestinian 
refugees and Jewish refugees in articulating the mission of the Refugee 
Working Group, stating that ``[t]he refugee group will consider practical 
ways of improving the lot of people throughout the region who have been 
displaced from their homes''; and

    (3) the Roadmap to a Permanent Two-State Solution to the Israeli-
Palestinian Conflict, which refers in Phase III to an ``agreed, just, fair, 
and realistic solution to the refugee issue'', language that is consistent 
with United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, which applied equally 
to Arab and Jewish peoples;

Whereas Egypt, Jordan, and the Palestinians have affirmed that a comprehensive 
        solution to the Middle East conflict will require a just solution to the 
        plight of all ``refugees'', as evidenced by--

    (1) the 1978 Camp David Accords, the Framework for Peace in the Middle 
East, which includes a commitment by Egypt and Israel to ``work with each 
other and with other interested parties to establish agreed procedures for 
a prompt, just and permanent resolution of the implementation of the 
refugee problem'';

    (2) the Treaty of Peace between Israel and Egypt, signed at Washington 
March 26, 1979, which provides in Article 8 that the ``Parties agree to 
establish a claims commission for the mutual settlement of all financial 
claims'' and makes general references to United Nations Security Council 
Resolution 242 as the basis for comprehensive peace in the region; and

    (3) Article 8 of the Treaty of Peace Between the State of Israel and 
the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, done at Arava/Araba Crossing Point October 
26, 1994, entitled ``Refugees and Displaced Persons'', refers to ``the 
massive human problems caused to both Parties by the conflict in the Middle 
East'';

Whereas the call to secure rights and redress for Jewish and other minorities 
        who were forced to flee Arab countries is not a campaign against 
        Palestinian refugees;
Whereas the international community should be aware of the plight of Jews and 
        other minority groups displaced from the Middle East, North Africa, and 
        the Persian Gulf;
Whereas the history and legacy of Jewish refugees from Arab countries must be 
        preserved;
Whereas no just and comprehensive Middle East peace can be reached without 
        recognition of, and redress for, the uprooting of centuries-old Jewish 
        communities in the Middle East, North Africa, and the Persian Gulf; and
Whereas it would be appropriate and just for the United States, while 
        recognizing rights for Palestinian refugees, to recognize equal rights 
        for former Jewish, Christian, and other refugees from Arab countries: 
        Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved,

SECTION 1. SENSE OF THE SENATE ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND REFUGEES.

    It is the sense of the Senate that--
            (1) the United States deplores the past and present ongoing 
        violation of the human rights and religious freedoms of 
        minority populations in Arab and Muslim countries throughout 
        the Middle East, North Africa, and the Persian Gulf; and
            (2) with respect to Jews, Christians, and other populations 
        displaced from countries in the region, for any comprehensive 
        Arab-Israeli peace agreement to be credible, durable, enduring, 
        and constitute an end to conflict in the Middle East, North 
        Africa, and the Persian Gulf, the agreement must address and 
        resolve all outstanding issues, including the legitimate rights 
        of all refugees of the Middle East, North Africa, and the 
        Persian Gulf.

SEC. 2. UNITED STATES POLICY ON REFUGEES OF THE MIDDLE EAST.

    The Senate urges the President to--
            (1) instruct the United States Permanent Representative to 
        the United Nations and all representatives of the United States 
        in bilateral and multilateral fora that, when considering or 
        addressing resolutions that allude to the issue of refugees in 
        the Middle East, North Africa, and the Persian Gulf, they 
        should ensure that--
                    (A) relevant text refers to the fact that multiple 
                refugee populations have been created by the Arab-
                Israeli conflict; and
                    (B) any explicit reference to the required 
                resolution of the Palestinian refugee issue is matched 
                by a similar explicit reference to the resolution of 
                the issue of Jewish, Christian, and other refugees from 
                Arab and Muslim countries throughout the Middle East, 
                North Africa, and the Persian Gulf region; and
            (2) make clear that the United States Government supports 
        the position that, as an integral part of any comprehensive 
        peace, the issue of refugees and the mass violations of human 
        rights of minorities in Arab and Muslim countries throughout 
        the Middle East, North Africa, and the Persian Gulf must be 
        resolved in a manner that includes--
                    (A) consideration of the legitimate rights of all 
                refugees displaced from Arab and Muslim countries 
                throughout the Middle East, North Africa, and the 
                Persian Gulf; and
                    (B) recognition of the losses incurred by Jews, 
                Christians, and other minority groups as a result of 
                the Arab-Israeli conflict.
                                 <all>