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[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 494 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

109th CONGRESS
  2d Session
S. RES. 494

 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

                              May 25, 2006

Mr. Santorum (for himself, Mr. Lautenberg, Mr. Coleman, and Mr. Durbin) 
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, more than 1,000 years before the advent of Islam;
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 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, inter alia, 
        by--

    (1) a Memorandum of Understanding signed by President Jimmy Carter and 
Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan on October 4, 1977, which states that 
``[a] solution of the problem of Arab refugees and Jewish refugees will be 
discussed in accordance with rules which should be agreed'';

    (2) a statement made by President Jimmy 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) a statement made by President 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.'';

    (4) Senate Resolution 76, 85th Congress, introduced by Senator 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; and

    (5) 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;

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 of July 28, 1951 (189 UNTS 150));
Whereas the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), on 2 separate 
        occasions, 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) when Dr. E. Jahn, for the United Nations High Commissioner for 
Refugees, wrote to Daniel Lack, Legal Adviser to the American Joint 
Distribution Committee, on July 6, 1967, 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 pointed out that ``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,'' and uses language that is 
equally applicable to all persons displaced as a result of the conflict in 
the Middle East;

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'', in addition to 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'', recognizes ``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 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 not be appropriate, and would constitute an injustice, were the 
        United States to recognize rights for Palestinian refugees without 
        recognizing 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 
        Middle East peace agreement to be credible, durable, enduring, 
        and constitute an end to conflict in the Middle East, the 
        agreement must address and resolve all outstanding issues, 
        including the legitimate rights of all refugees of the Middle 
        East.

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 Middle East 
        refugees, 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 countries; and
            (2) make clear that the Government of the United States 
        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 countries; and
                    (B) recognition of the losses incurred by Jews, 
                Christians, and other minority groups as a result of 
                the Arab-Israeli conflict.
                                 <all>
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