IV 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. RES. 1231 

Recognizing the Nakba and Palestinian refugees’ rights. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MAY 15, 2024 

Ms. TLAIB (for herself, Ms. OMAR, Ms. BUSH, and Mr. CARSON) submitted 

the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign 

Affairs 

RESOLUTION 

Recognizing the Nakba and Palestinian refugees’ rights. 

Whereas the United Nations General Assembly recommended 

on November 29, 1947, to partition Palestine into two 

states against the wishes of Palestine’s majority indigenous inhabitants; 

Whereas this partition plan nevertheless provided for the 

‘‘Full protection for the rights and interests of minorities, 

including the protection of the linguistic, religious and 

ethnic rights of the peoples and respect for their cultures, 

and full equality of all citizens with regard to political, 

civil and religious matters’’; 

Whereas before the State of Israel declared its independence 

on May 14, 1948, there were already between 250,000 to 

300,000 Palestinian refugees who were expelled or fled 


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from their homes often after attacks by Zionist militias 

on major Palestinian cities and villages; 

Whereas by the time the war ended with the signing of armistice agreements between Israel and neighboring Arab 

countries in 1949, establishing Israel’s sovereignty over 

78 percent of Palestine, and, in the process, conquering 

an additional 23 percent of Palestine beyond those areas 

allocated to the Jewish state under the partition plan, 

there were at least 750,000 Palestinian refugees (roughly 

75 percent of the indigenous population that had lived in 

areas that became Israel); 

Whereas, by 1949, Israel had depopulated more than 400 

Palestinian villages and cities, often demolishing all 

structures and planting forests over them; 

Whereas Palestinians refer to this experience of uprooting, 

dispossession, and refugeedom as the Nakba (meaning 

‘‘catastrophe’’ in English); 

Whereas the United States knew of the scale and magnitude 

of the Palestine refugee crisis as it unfolded, as is documented in an October 1948 telegram to the President 

and Secretary of State from the Embassy of the United 

States to Israel, warning that the ‘‘Arab Refugee tragedy 

is rapidly reaching catastrophic proportions and should 

be treated as a disaster’’; 

Whereas the United States voted in favor of United Nations 

General Assembly Resolution 194 on December 11, 1948, 

which states that Palestinian ‘‘refugees wishing to return 

to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors 

should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable 

date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or 


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damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the 

governments or authorities responsible’’; 

Whereas Palestinian refugees’ right of return is not only stipulated in a General Assembly resolution, but is also anchored in international law and in Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states: ‘‘Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his 

own, and to return to his country’’; 

Whereas, on December 8, 1949, the United Nations General 

Assembly adopted Resolution 302 establishing the United 

Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees 

in the Near East, which the United States has financially 

supported on an almost continuous basis since its establishment; 

Whereas of the more than 7,000,000 Palestinian refugees, 

the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East provides much-needed 

social services to 5,700,000 Palestine refugees today; 

Whereas international law also recognizes that descendants of 

refugees retain their rights as refugees, and that according to the United Nations, ‘‘Palestine refugees are not 

distinct from other protracted refugee situations such as 

those from Afghanistan or Somalia, where there are multiple generations of refugees, considered by UNHCR as 

refugees and supported as such. Protracted refugee situations are the result of the failure to find political solutions to their underlying political crises’’; 

Whereas the Nakba refers not only to a historical event but 

to an ongoing process of Israel’s expropriation of PalesVerDate Sep 11 2014 03:24 May 16, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR1231.IH HR1231

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tinian land and its dispossession of the Palestinian people 

that continues to this day; 

Whereas the apartheid government of Israel is committing a 

genocide against the Palestinian people which, as of May 

14, 2024, has killed at least 35,000 people, including 

more than 14,500 children, wounded more than 79,000, 

with 10,000 additional people still missing, displaced over 

1,700,000 Palestinians, and created a state of famine 

across Gaza; 

Whereas the establishment and expansion of hundreds of illegal settlements and outposts in the occupied Palestinian 

West Bank in which approximately 674,000 Israelis reside as of 2020 is another form of ethnic cleaning used 

to perpetuate the Nakba; and 

Whereas a just and lasting resolution requires respect for and 

the implementation of Palestine refugee rights as enshrined in United Nations General Assembly Resolution 

194 and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: 

Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Rep2 resentatives that it is the policy of the United States to— 

3 (1) commemorate the Nakba through official 

4 recognition and remembrance; 

5 (2) denounce the ongoing Nakba of the Pales6 tinian people; 

7 (3) reject efforts to enlist, engage, or otherwise 

8 associate the United States Government with denial 

9 of the Nakba; 


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1 (4) encourage education and public under2 standing of the facts of the Nakba, including the 

3 United States role in the humanitarian relief effort, 

4 and the relevance of the Nakba to modern-day ref5 ugee crises; 

6 (5) support the resumed provision of social 

7 service to Palestinian refugees through the United 

8 Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Ref9 ugees in the Near East; 

10 (6) support the implementation of Palestinian 

11 refugees’ rights as enshrined in United Nations Gen12 eral Assembly Resolution 194 and the Universal 

13 Declaration of Human Rights; 

14 (7) recognize that Palestinians are a unique 

15 people who are every bit as human as everyone else; 

16 and 

17 (8) reject bigoted efforts to question, dismiss, 

18 or otherwise deny the existence of Palestinians and 

19 their humanity. 

Æ 


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