IV 

110TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. CON. RES. 428 

Expressing the sense of Congress that the United Nations should take immediate steps to improve the transparency and accountability of the United 

Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) 

in the Near East to ensure that it is not providing funding, employment, 

or other support to terrorists. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

SEPTEMBER 24, 2008 

Mr. ROTHMAN (for himself, Mr. BURTON of Indiana, Ms. BERKLEY, Mr. 

ENGEL, Mr. ISRAEL, and Mrs. TAUSCHER) submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 

Expressing the sense of Congress that the United Nations 

should take immediate steps to improve the transparency 

and accountability of the United Nations Relief and 

Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) in 

the Near East to ensure that it is not providing funding, 

employment, or other support to terrorists. 

Whereas the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for 

Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) was 

established in 1949 as a temporary agency to provide relief services to Palestinian refugees and is the only 

United Nations agency dedicated to one specific group of 

refugees; 


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•HCON 428 IH 

Whereas UNRWA’s definition of refugees includes not only 

the Palestinian refugees themselves, but also their descendants, resulting in a more than 400 percent increase 

in the number of beneficiaries from 900,000 in 1950 to 

4,500,000 today; 

Whereas since 1950, the United States has contributed more 

than $3,400,000,000 to UNRWA and is the largest single donor to this United Nations organization; 

Whereas as of September 2008, the United States has already contributed $148,000,000 to UNRWA for fiscal 

year 2008; 

Whereas UNRWA employs approximately 24,000 staff to 

care for a population of 4,500,000 registered refugees in 

camps located in Jordan, Lebanon, the Syrian Arab Republic, and the Palestinian Territories; 

Whereas, in contrast, the United Nations High Commissioner 

for Refugees (UNHCR), the agency tasked with resolving 

refugee problems worldwide, employs approximately 

6,300 staff to care for a population of 11,400,000 refugees worldwide; 

Whereas despite the Israeli Defense Forces’ (IDF) military 

disengagement from Gaza in 2005 and the 1993 creation 

of a Palestinian Authority that has jurisdiction over the 

Palestinian refugee camps in Gaza and the West Bank, 

UNRWA remains the primary professional, medical, educational, and social service provider for Palestinians living in ‘‘refugee’’ camps in the Palestinian territories; 

Whereas according to UNRWA Report of the Board of Auditors for the biennium ended December 31, 2005, 

UNRWA does not track recording, deleting, renaming, or 

manipulation of financial information by staff members 


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•HCON 428 IH 

or volunteers, and therefore has no means of detecting 

the alteration of financial data or other types of redirection of UNRWA funding, leaving UNRWA unable to 

technically comply with section 301(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, which ensures that no United 

States tax dollars support terrorism; 

Whereas UNRWA has employed staffers affiliated with terrorism, including Said Sayyam, the Hamas Minister of 

Interior and Civil Affairs, who was a teacher in UNRWA 

schools in Gaza from 1980 to 2003; Awad al-Qiq, the 

headmaster of an UNRWA school in the Gaza Strip who 

also led Islamic Jihad’s engineering unit that built bombs 

and Qassam rockets; Nahed Rashid Ahmed Atallah, a 

prior senior UNRWA employee from 1990 to 1993 who 

was responsible for the dissemination of assistance to refugees while he was also an operative of the Popular 

Front for the Liberation of Palestine; and Nidal Abd alFattah Abdallah Nazzal, a Hamas activist employed as 

an ambulance driver by UNRWA, who confessed in 2002 

to transporting weapons and explosives to terrorists in an 

UNRWA ambulance; 

Whereas schools administered by UNRWA have reported to 

have produced several graduates that have gone on to careers affiliated with terrorism, including Hamas Prime 

Minister Ismail Haniyeh, and Abd al-Azis Rantisi, the 

former Hamas chief; 

Whereas schools administered by UNRWA have used classroom materials that glorify or honor terrorists or terrorism in the past, and continue to use textbooks that include biased and negative references to Jews and the 

State of Israel, or omit any reference of Israel’s location 

on a map entirely; 


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•HCON 428 IH 

Whereas in 2004, Peter Hansen, then-Commissioner General 

of UNRWA told Canadian Broadcasting Corporation TV 

Network, ‘‘I am sure that there are Hamas members on 

UNRWA payroll and I don’t see that as a crime.’’; 

Whereas in 2006, at a Congressional briefing UNRWA Commissioner General Karen Koning AbuZayd admitted to 

not checking the names of those who receive financial aid 

from UNRWA against any terrorist watch lists, noting 

that it would be too difficult because ‘‘Arab last names 

sound so familiar’’; 

Whereas, on March 16, 2007, the New York Times exposed 

a new al-Qaeda cell, Fatah al-Islam, that was organizing, 

training, and plotting attacks against the United States 

from an UNRWA-administered and run camp in Lebanon; and 

Whereas United States taxpayer dollars should never be used 

for purposes of supporting terrorist cells or activities that 

support terror or promote a culture of hatred at any of 

its locations: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 

2 concurring), That Congress— 

3 (1) strongly urges the Secretary of State to 

4 take all necessary measures to certify that United 

5 Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian 

6 Refugees (UNRWA) operates in full compliance with 

7 section 301(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act and 

8 therefore, no American taxpayer dollars are being di9 rected to terrorists or to further terrorist propa10 ganda; 


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•HCON 428 IH 

1 (2) calls on UNRWA to improve their trans2 parency by publishing online copies of all educational 

3 materials used in UNRWA-administered schools; 

4 and 

5 (3) urges UNRWA to improve their account6 ability by implementing terrorist name recognition 

7 software and other screening procedures that would 

8 help to ensure that UNRWA staff, volunteers, and 

9 beneficiaries are neither terrorists themselves, nor 

10 affiliated with known terrorist organizations. 

Æ 


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