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—
(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
(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—
(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
(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
1.Sense of the Senate on human
rights and refugeesIt 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.
2.United States
policy on refugees of the Middle EastThe 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.