IV 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. RES. 388 

Recognizing the ongoing Nakba and Palestine refugees rights. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MAY 10, 2023 

Ms. TLAIB (for herself, Ms. OMAR, Ms. MCCOLLUM, Mr. BOWMAN, Ms. 

OCASIO-CORTEZ, and Ms. BUSH) submitted the following resolution; 

which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 

RESOLUTION 

Recognizing the ongoing Nakba and Palestine refugees 

rights. 

Whereas May 15, 2023, is the 75th commemoration of the 

Palestinian Nakba, meaning ‘‘catastrophe’’ in English, a 

term which refers to Israel’s uprooting, dispossession, 

and exile of the Palestinian people from their homeland, 

and Israeli politicians are increasingly threatening Palestinians with a second Nakba today; 

Whereas the Nakba is the root cause of the issues that continue to divide Israel and the Palestinian people today, 

and a just and lasting peace cannot be established without addressing the Nakba and remedying its injustices 

toward the Palestinian people; 

Whereas the Nakba is not only a historical event, but also an 

ongoing process characterized by Israel’s separate-andVerDate Sep 11 2014 03:07 May 11, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR388.IH HR388

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•HRES 388 IH 

unequal laws and policies toward Palestinians, including 

the destruction of Palestinian homes, the construction 

and expansion of illegal settlements, and Israel’s confinement of Palestinians to ever-shrinking areas of land; 

Whereas, during the Nakba, Israel forcibly exiled or caused 

to flee for their lives under duress of military campaigns, 

which frequently included massacres and other atrocities 

committed against civilians, at least 750,000 Palestinians 

(approximately 75 percent of the indigenous population 

that had lived in areas that became Israel), who became 

refugees; 

Whereas, by 1949, Israel had depopulated and destroyed 

more than 400 Palestinian villages and cities, often demolishing all homes and other buildings, planting forests 

over them, or confiscating and expropriating Palestinian 

property to give to Jewish Israelis; 

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 neighbours 

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 

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 that, 

‘‘Everyone has the right to leave any country, including 

his own, and to return to his country.’’; 


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•HRES 388 IH 

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 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 a just and lasting resolution to the PalestinianIsraeli issue 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; 

Whereas the United States Congress enacted the Elie Wiesel 

Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act of 2018 (Public 

Law 115–441) mandating the President to identify, monitor, and report on potential and ongoing atrocities, and 

to develop policies and programs to improve the United 

States response, and noting that it is the policy of the 

United States to ‘‘regard the prevention of atrocities as 

in its national interest’’; 

Whereas Israeli politicians are increasingly threatening a second Nakba against the Palestinian people, as did, for instance, former Deputy Minister of Religious Affairs 

Matan Kahan, who stated on June 14, 2022, ‘‘If there 


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•HRES 388 IH 

was a button that could be pressed and all the Arabs 

could disappear—get on an express train to Switzerland, 

I would push it.’’, and as did Jerusalem city council 

member Yonatan Yosef, who led chants of, ‘‘We Want 

Nakba Now!’’ during a provocative march through occupied Palestinian East Jerusalem on January 13, 2023; 

Whereas, on December 29, 2022, Israel formed its most extremist government to date, which includes in its cabinet 

Bezalel Smotrich, who previously stated to Palestinian 

citizens of Israel in Israel’s parliament, ‘‘You’re here by 

mistake, it’s a mistake that [Israeli Prime Minister 

David] Ben-Gurion didn’t finish the job and didn’t throw 

you out in 1948.’’; 

Whereas, after Israeli settlers committed a pogrom in the 

Palestinian West Bank village of Huwara on February 

26, 2023, in which settlers killed one Palestinian, injured 

more than 100 others, and set fire to hundreds of houses, 

Smotrich also stated on March 1, 2023, that ‘‘I think the 

[Palestinian] village of Huwara needs to be wiped out. I 

think the State of Israel should do it.’’; 

Whereas, since its formation, the current Israeli Government 

has intensified its violent military rule over the Palestinian West Bank, has increased the scope of its illegal 

settlements there, has taken steps to de jure annex the 

Palestinian West Bank through the transfer of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories from 

military to civilian responsibility, and has advanced legislation to undermine the independence of Israel’s judiciary; and 

Whereas the United States is complicit in Israel’s ongoing 

Nakba against the Palestinian people by providing Israel 

with weapons and diplomatic support even as it advances 


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•HRES 388 IH 

plans to destroy more Palestinian homes and forcibly remove more Palestinians from their land in places such as 

Sheikh Jarrah, Silwan, and Masafer Yatta, and is also 

currently advancing plans to build a diplomatic facility in 

Jerusalem on land that Israel expropriated from Palestinian refugees, including United States citizens: 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) reject efforts to enlist, engage, or otherwise 

6 associate the United States Government with denial 

7 of the Nakba; 

8 (3) encourage education and public under9 standing of the facts of the Nakba, including the 

10 United States role in the humanitarian relief effort 

11 and the relevance of the Nakba to the modern-day 

12 refugee crises; 

13 (4) continue to support the provision of social 

14 services to Palestine refugees through the United 

15 Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Ref16 ugees in the Near East; 

17 (5) support the implementation of Palestinian 

18 refugees’ rights as enshrined in United Nations Gen19 eral Assembly Resolution 194 and the Universal 

20 Declaration of Human Rights; 


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•HRES 388 IH 

1 (6) condemn all manifestations of Israel’s ongo2 ing Nakba against the Palestinian people, includ3 ing— 

4 (A) Israel’s illegal theft of Palestinian land 

5 in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem; 

6 (B) Israel’s displacement of Palestinians 

7 by destroying their homes and forcing them 

8 from their land; and 

9 (C) the daily brutality and violence in10 flicted by the Israeli military and Israeli settlers 

11 against Palestinian civilians; 

12 (7) request from the President the application 

13 of the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Preven14 tion Act of 2018 (Public Law 115–441) to the treat15 ment of Palestinians by Israel (both state and 

16 nonstate actors), including— 

17 (A) a report on the situation in the man18 dated annual reporting to the Congress; 

19 (B) training for United States Foreign 

20 Service Officers stationed in the United States 

21 Embassy to Israel per section 4 of such Act and 

22 section 4028(d) of title 22, United States Code; 

23 and 

24 (C) supporting and protecting Palestinian 

25 and Israeli civil society groups and human 


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•HRES 388 IH 

1 rights defenders working to monitor, document, 

2 prevent, and respond to atrocities; 

3 (8) denounce as incitement all threats, either 

4 implicit or explicit, by Israeli politicians to commit 

5 a second Nakba, or to finish what Israel began in 

6 1948, or similar such statements; and 

7 (9) ensure the United States ends its complicity 

8 in Israel’s ongoing Nakba against the Palestinian 

9 people by— 

10 (A) prohibiting United States weapons 

11 from being used to destroy Palestinian homes 

12 and forcibly removing Palestinians from their 

13 land; 

14 (B) ending United States diplomatic sup15 port for such actions; and 

16 (C) refraining from building any diplo17 matic facility on land expropriated by Israel 

18 from Palestinian refugees, including United 

19 States citizens. 

Æ 


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