III 

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; 


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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 


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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 


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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, 


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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 ArabIsraeli 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 intenVerDate Aug 31 2005 00:39 May 31, 2006 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR494.IS SR494

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tion 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 


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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; 


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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 

1 Resolved, 

2 SECTION 1. SENSE OF THE SENATE ON HUMAN RIGHTS 

3 AND REFUGEES. 

4 It is the sense of the Senate that— 

5 (1) the United States deplores the past and 

6 present ongoing violation of the human rights and 

7 religious freedoms of minority populations in Arab 

8 and Muslim countries throughout the Middle East, 

9 North Africa, and the Persian Gulf; and 

10 (2) with respect to Jews, Christians, and other 

11 populations displaced from countries in the region, 

12 for any comprehensive Middle East peace agreement 

13 to be credible, durable, enduring, and constitute an 

14 end to conflict in the Middle East, the agreement 

15 must address and resolve all outstanding issues, inVerDate Aug 31 2005 00:39 May 31, 2006 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\SR494.IS SR494

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1 cluding the legitimate rights of all refugees of the 

2 Middle East. 

3 SEC. 2. UNITED STATES POLICY ON REFUGEES OF THE MID4 DLE EAST. 

5 The Senate urges the President to— 

6 (1) instruct the United States Permanent Rep7 resentative to the United Nations and all representa8 tives of the United States in bilateral and multilat9 eral fora that when considering or addressing resolu10 tions that allude to the issue of Middle East refu11 gees, they should ensure that— 

12 (A) relevant text refers to the fact that 

13 multiple refugee populations have been created 

14 by the Arab-Israeli conflict; and 

15 (B) any explicit reference to the required 

16 resolution of the Palestinian refugee issue is 

17 matched by a similar explicit reference to the 

18 resolution of the issue of Jewish, Christian, and 

19 other refugees from Arab countries; and 

20 (2) make clear that the Government of the 

21 United States supports the position that, as an inte22 gral part of any comprehensive peace, the issue of 

23 refugees and the mass violations of human rights of 

24 minorities in Arab and Muslim countries throughout 


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1 the Middle East, North Africa, and the Persian Gulf 

2 must be resolved in a manner that includes— 

3 (A) consideration of the legitimate rights 

4 of all refugees displaced from Arab countries; 

5 and 

6 (B) recognition of the losses incurred by 

7 Jews, Christians, and other minority groups as 

8 a result of the Arab-Israeli conflict. 

Æ 


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