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[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5734 Introduced in House (IH)]

113th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5734

To achieve a lasting peace in the Middle East and improve the economic 
                       situation for its people.

_______________________________________________________________________

                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           November 18, 2014

 Mr. Stockman introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                      Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

 
To achieve a lasting peace in the Middle East and improve the economic 
                       situation for its people.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Right of Return Act''.

SEC. 2. PLAN FOR PEACE.

    (a) Findings.--Congress finds as follows:
            (1) The policy of the two-state solution and the concept of 
        ``land for peace'' have consistently failed to bring about a 
        lasting peace in the Land of Israel.
            (2) In November 2014, Suha Arafat, wife of former Palestine 
        Liberation Organization chair Yasser Arafat, stated in the 
        Italian newspaper La Repubblica that ``The armed struggle today 
        will not lead to anything. We will only end up crushed.''. In 
        that same interview, Arafat also stated that ``Hamas has taken 
        people hostage'' and ``A generation . . . is growing up in 
        violence, with no education, with no hope but emigration''.
            (3) The Palestinian Authority has been offered a sovereign 
        state in virtually the entirety of the disputed territories on 
        multiple occasions, including in 2000, 2001, and 2008, and has 
        rejected it each time.
            (4) The 2011 unemployment rate at 28.4 percent for 
        Palestinian Arabs, compared with 5.1 percent for Israeli Arabs.
            (5) A September 2007 survey by the Center for Palestinian 
        Policy and Research found that 32 percent of Palestinian Arabs 
        want to emigrate.
            (6) The Emirate of Transjordan was created out of the 
        British Mandate for Palestine for the explicit purpose of being 
        the home for Palestinian Arabs by the Transjordan Memorandum in 
        1922.
            (7) The concept of enabling people to move to new homes in 
        other territories was recommended as a solution to the conflict 
        by the Peel Commission in 1937 and was also recommended as a 
        solution to the conflict by the United Nations Partition Plan 
        for Palestine in 1947.
            (8) The 2012 Levy Report found that the region of Judea and 
        Samaria does not fall under the jurisdiction of the 1949 Fourth 
        Geneva Convention.
            (9) The purpose of this bill is to increase the economic 
        wealth and civil rights of Palestinian Arabs.
    (b) Plan for Peace.--The Congress of the United States shall take 
the following course of action:
            (1) The Secretary of State shall call for the State of 
        Israel to increase the standard of living of those living in 
        Judea, Samaria, and Gaza by extending its sovereignty over 
        those territories, and for the Palestinian Arab residents 
        currently residing in those areas to be granted citizenship in 
        the countries that controlled those territories from 1949 to 
        1967 and have a right of return to those countries.
            (2) As long as part of the unity government of the 
        Palestinian Authority refuses to allow the right of return to 
        the countries that controlled Judea, Samaria, and Gaza from 
        1949 to 1967, no funds appropriated by Congress under any Act 
        may be obligated or expended to provide any United States 
        assistance, loan guarantee, or debt relief to the Palestinian 
        Authority.
            (3) The Secretary of State of the United States shall take 
        such action as will ensure that refugees are allowed to be 
        properly allowed to return into their host countries in 
        accordance with the regulations set forth by the United Nations 
        High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).
            (4) All United States assistance, loan guarantee, and debt 
        relief that currently goes to the United Nations Relief and 
        Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) 
        shall instead be used to assist those who exercise their right 
        of return to the countries who controlled Judea, Samaria, and 
        Gaza from 1949 to 1967.
                                 <all>
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