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[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3829 Introduced in House (IH)]

<DOC>

114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3829

 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

                            October 26, 2015

 Ms. Ros-Lehtinen 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-
Incitement and 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 
        over $5,250,000,000 to UNRWA, including an average of over 
        $277,000,000 per year between fiscal years 2009 and 2015.
            (4) UNRWA staff unions, including the teachers' union, are 
        frequently controlled by members affiliated with Hamas.
            (5) The curriculum of UNRWA schools, which use the 
        textbooks of their respective host governments or authorities, 
        has long contained materials that are anti-Israel, anti-
        Semitic, and supportive of 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 $408,751,396 in 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 [in] 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.
            (16) On September 1, 2015, the nongovernmental 
        organization, UN Watch, published a report which documented 12 
        different Facebook accounts operated by UNRWA officials that 
        openly incite to anti-Semitism and violence, including Ahmed 
        Fathi Bader, who identified himself as a Deputy School 
        Principal at UNRWA and who praised the murder of ``a group of 
        collaborators with the Jews''.
            (17) On October 16, 2015, UN Watch published a report 
        entitled ``Report on UNRWA Teachers and Other Officials 
        Inciting Violence & Antisemitism'', identifying an additional 
        10 UNRWA individuals that openly incite to anti-Semitism and 
        violence, including Hani Al Ramahi, who identified himself as a 
        ``Projects Support Assistant at UNRWA'', and who posted an 
        image that encouraged Palestinians to ``stab Zionist dogs''.
            (18) On October 20, 2015, the United Nations Secretary-
        General's Deputy Spokesman's office, in response to a question 
        regarding the UNRWA allegations raised in the UN Watch reports, 
        stated that ``in a number of cases so far, the Agency has found 
        staff Facebook postings to be in violation of its social media 
        rules . . . the staff have been subject to both remedial and 
        disciplinary action, including suspension and loss of pay. The 
        remaining allegations are under assessment''.
            (19) As of October 21, 2015, there have been at least 9 
        Israelis killed and dozens more injured in at least 44 violent 
        attacks in Israel and the Palestinian territories since 
        September 13, 2015.

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 3 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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