[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5647 Introduced in House (IH)]
113th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 5647
To promote transparency, accountability, and reform within the United
Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near
East, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
September 18, 2014
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen (for herself, Mr. Perry, Mr. Yoho, and Mr. DeSantis)
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on
Foreign Affairs
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To promote transparency, accountability, and reform within the United
Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near
East, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS.
(a) Short Title.--This Act may be cited as the ``UNRWA Anti-
Terrorism Act''.
(b) Table of Contents.--The table of contents is as follows:
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
Sec. 2. Findings.
Sec. 3. United States contributions to UNRWA.
Sec. 4. Sense of Congress.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress makes the following findings:
(1) The total annual budget of the United Nations Relief
and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East
(UNRWA), including its core programs, emergency activities, and
special projects, exceeds $1,400,000,000.
(2) The United States has long been the largest single
contributing country to UNRWA.
(3) From 1950 to 2014, the United States has contributed
almost $5,000,000,000 to UNRWA, including an average of over
$260,000,000 per year between fiscal years 2009 and 2014.
(4) UNRWA staff unions, including the teachers' union, are
frequently controlled by members affiliated with Hamas.
(5) The curriculum of UNRWA schools, which has been known
to use the textbooks of their respective host governments or
authorities, has a history of containing materials that are
anti-Israel, anti-Semitic, and supporting violent extremism.
(6) Despite UNRWA's contravention of United States law and
activities that compromise its strictly humanitarian mandate,
UNRWA continues to receive United States contributions,
including $294,000,000 in fiscal year 2013 and over
$250,000,000 in just the first 6 months of 2014.
(7) Assistance from the United States and other responsible
nations allows UNRWA to claim that criticisms of the agency's
behavior are unfounded. UNRWA spokesman Christopher Gunness has
dismissed concerns by stating that, ``If these baseless
allegations were even halfway true, do you really think the
U.S. and [European Commission] would give us hundreds of
millions of dollars per year?''.
(8) Former UNRWA general counsel James Lindsay noted in a
2009 report the following:
(A) ``The United States, despite funding nearly 75
percent of UNRWA's national budget and remaining its
largest single country donor, has mostly failed to make
UNRWA reflect U.S. foreign policy objectives . . .
Recent U.S. efforts to shape UNRWA appear to have been
ineffective . . .''.
(B) ``[T]he United States is not obligated to fund
agencies that refuse to check its rolls for individuals
their donors do not wish to support.''.
(C) ``A number of changes in UNRWA could benefit
the refugees, the Middle East, and the United States,
but those changes will not occur unless the United
States, ideally with support from UNRWA's other main
financial supporter, the European Union, compels the
agency to enact reforms.''.
(D) ``If the [UNRWA commissioner-general's] power
is used in ways that are conflict with the donors'
political objectives, it is up to the donors to take
the necessary actions to ensure that their interests
are respected. When they have done so, UNRWA--given the
tight financial leash it has been on for most of its
existence--has tended to follow their dictates, even if
sometimes slowly.''.
(9) During Israel's Operation Protective Edge in 2014 in
response to Hamas rocket attacks against Israel, UNRWA's
Commissioner General gave a press briefing ignoring the
extraordinary efforts Israel goes to avoid civilian casualties,
and not once in the nearly 1,100 word statement mentioning
Hamas or condemning Hamas' use of Palestinian children, women,
and men as human shields in violation of international
humanitarian law.
(10) On July 16, 2014, UNRWA reported that it had found 20
missiles in one of its schools in Gaza, likely placed there by
Hamas, and then instead of dismantling the missiles, UNRWA
returned them to the ``relevant authorities'' in Gaza, and
since Hamas controls Gaza, it likely turned them back over to
Hamas.
(11) On July 22, 2014, UNRWA reported that it had found a
second instance in which missiles were stockpiled in one of its
schools in Gaza, and again failed to condemn Hamas publicly.
(12) On July 29, 2014, UNRWA confirmed that, for the third
time in less than a month, a stockpile of Hamas rockets was
found in one of its schools in Gaza, establishing a pattern of
Hamas weapons being stored in UNRWA facilities, and calling
into question UNRWA's claim of being caught unawares to Hamas'
actions.
(13) On July 30, 2014, three Israeli Defense Force soldiers
were killed in an explosion at a booby-trapped UNRWA health
clinic, which was housing the opening to one of Hamas'
underground tunnels.
(14) On July 30, 2014, John Ging, head of UNRWA from 2006-
2011, when asked if Hamas has been using human shields and
using United Nations schools and hospitals to store weapons and
as a shelter from which to launch missiles into Israel, stated
in an interview, ``Yes, the armed groups are firing their
rockets into Israel from the vicinity of UN facilities and
residential areas. Absolutely.''.
(15) During Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, UNRWA
repeatedly distorted the facts and accused Israel of targeting
Palestinian women and children based off of the casualty
numbers provided to it by Gaza's Hamas-run Health Ministry,
which has been shown to have deliberately lied about the
casualty numbers.
SEC. 3. UNITED STATES CONTRIBUTIONS TO UNRWA.
Section 301 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2221)
is amended by striking subsection (c) and inserting the following new
subsection:
``(c)(1) Withholding.--Contributions by the United States to the
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the
Near East (UNRWA), to any successor or related entity, or to the
regular budget of the United Nations for the support of UNRWA or a
successor entity (through staff positions provided by the United
Nations Secretariat or otherwise), may be provided only during a period
for which a certification described in paragraph (2) is in effect.
``(2) Certification.--A certification described in this paragraph
is a written determination by the Secretary of State, based on all
information available after diligent inquiry, and transmitted to the
appropriate congressional committees along with a detailed description
of the factual basis therefore, that--
``(A) no official, employee, consultant, contractor,
subcontractor, representative, or affiliate of UNRWA--
``(i) is a member of a foreign terrorist
organization;
``(ii) has propagated, disseminated, or incited
anti-American, anti-Israel, or anti-Semitic rhetoric or
propaganda; or
``(iii) has used any UNRWA resources, including
publications or Web sites, to propagate or disseminate
political materials, including political rhetoric
regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict;
``(B) no UNRWA school, hospital, clinic, other facility, or
other infrastructure or resource is being used by a foreign
terrorist organization for operations, planning, training,
recruitment, fundraising, indoctrination, communications,
sanctuary, storage of weapons or other materials, or as an
access point to any underground tunnel network, or any other
purposes;
``(C) UNRWA is subject to comprehensive financial audits by
an internationally recognized third party independent auditing
firm and has implemented an effective system of vetting and
oversight to prevent the use, receipt, or diversion of any
UNRWA resources by any foreign terrorist organization or
members thereof;
``(D) no UNRWA-funded school or educational institution
uses textbooks or other educational materials that propagate or
disseminate anti-American, anti-Israel, or anti-Semitic
rhetoric, propaganda or incitement;
``(E) no recipient of UNRWA funds or loans is a member of a
foreign terrorist organization; and
``(F) UNRWA holds no accounts or other affiliations with
financial institutions that the United States deems or believes
to be complicit in money laundering and terror financing.
``(3) Definitions.--In this section:
``(A) Appropriate congressional committees.--The term
`appropriate congressional committees' means--
``(i) the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the
Committee on Appropriations, and the Committee on
Oversight and Government Reform of the House of
Representatives; and
``(ii) the Committee on Foreign Relations, the
Committee on Appropriations, and the Committee on
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the
Senate.
``(B) Foreign terrorist organization.--The term `foreign
terrorist organization' means an organization designated as a
foreign terrorist organization by the Secretary of State in
accordance with section 219(a) of the Immigration and
Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1189(a)).
``(4) Effective Duration of Certification.--The certification
described in paragraph (2) shall be effective for a period of 180 days
from the date of transmission to the appropriate congressional
committees, or until the Secretary receives information rendering that
certification factually inaccurate, whichever is earliest. In the event
that a certification becomes ineffective, the Secretary shall promptly
transmit to the appropriate congressional committees a description of
any information that precludes the renewal or continuation of the
certification.
``(5) Limitation.--During a period for which a certification
described in paragraph (2) is in effect, the United States may not
contribute to UNRWA or a successor entity an amount on an annual basis
that--
``(A) is greater than the highest annual contribution to
UNRWA made by a member country of the League of Arab States for
the same year;
``(B) as a proportion of the total UNRWA budget, exceeds
the proportion of the total budget for the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) paid by the United States; or
``(C) exceeds 22 percent of the total budget of UNRWA''.
SEC. 4. SENSE OF CONGRESS.
It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) the President and the Secretary of State should lead a
high-level diplomatic effort to encourage other responsible
nations to withhold contributions to the United Nations Relief
and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East
(UNRWA), to any successor or related entity, or to the regular
budget of the United Nations for the support of UNRWA or a
successor entity (through staff positions provided by the
United Nations Secretariat or otherwise) until UNRWA has met
the conditions listed in subparagraphs (A) through (F) of
section 301(c)(2) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (as
added by section 2 of this Act);
(2) citizens of recognized states should be removed from
UNRWA's jurisdiction;
(3) UNRWA's definition of a ``Palestine refugee'' should be
changed to that used for a refugee by the Office of the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees; and
(4) in order to alleviate the suffering of Palestinian
refugees, responsibility for those refugees should be fully
transferred to the Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees.
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