I 
112TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 6242 
To direct the President to submit to Congress a report on actions the 
executive branch has taken relating to the resolution of the issue of 
Jewish refugees from Arab countries. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 31, 2012 
Mr. NADLER (for himself, Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN, Mr. BERMAN, Mr. POE of 
Texas, Mr. CROWLEY, and Mr. TURNER of New York) introduced the fol-
lowing bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 
A BILL 
To direct the President to submit to Congress a report 
on actions the executive branch has taken relating to 
the resolution of the issue of Jewish refugees from Arab 
countries. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) Armed conflicts in the Middle East have 
created refugee populations numbering in the mil-
lions and comprised of peoples from many ethnic, re-
ligious, and national backgrounds. 
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(2) Jews have lived mostly as a minority in the 
Middle East, North Africa, and the Persian Gulf re-
gion for more than 2,500 years. 
(3) The United States has long voiced its con-
cern about the mistreatment of minorities and the 
violation of human rights in the Middle East and 
elsewhere. 
(4) The United States continues to play a piv-
otal role in seeking an end to the Arab-Israeli con-
flict in the Middle East and to promoting a peace 
that will benefit all the peoples of the region. 
(5) United States administrations historically 
have called for a just solution to the Palestinian ref-
ugee problem. 
(6) The Palestinian refugee issue has received 
considerable attention from countries of the world 
while the issue of Jewish refugees from the Arab 
and Muslim worlds has received very little attention. 
(7) A comprehensive peace in the region will re-
quire the resolution of all outstanding issues through 
bilateral and multilateral negotiations involving all 
concerned parties. 
(8) Approximately 850,000 Jews were displaced 
from Arab countries since the declaration of the 
State of Israel in 1948. 
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(9) The United States has demonstrated inter-
est and concern about the mistreatment, violation of 
rights, forced expulsion, and expropriation of assets 
of minority populations in general, and, in par-
ticular, former Jewish refugees displaced from Arab 
countries as evidenced, inter alia, by— 
(A) the 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’’; 
(B) after negotiating the Camp David Ac-
cords, the Framework for Peace in the Middle 
East, the statement by President Jimmy Carter 
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’’; and 
(C) in an interview after Camp David II in 
July 2000, at which the issue of Jewish refu-
gees displaced from Arab lands was discussed, 
the statement by President Clinton that ‘‘There 
will have to be some sort of international fund 
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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.’’. 
(10) On April 1, 2008, the House of Represent-
atives passed House Resolution 185, expressing the 
sense of the House of Representatives that— 
(A) for any comprehensive Middle East 
peace agreement to be credible and enduring, 
the agreement must address and resolve all out-
standing issues relating to the legitimate rights 
of all refugees, including Jews, Christians, and 
other populations, displaced from countries in 
the Middle East; and 
(B) the President should instruct the 
United States Representative to the United Na-
tions and all United States representatives in 
bilateral and multilateral fora to— 
(i) use the voice, vote, and influence 
of the United States to ensure that any 
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resolutions relating to the issue of Middle 
East refugees, and which include a ref-
erence to the required resolution of the 
Palestinian refugee issue, must also in-
clude a similarly explicit reference to the 
resolution of the issue of Jewish refugees 
from Arab countries; and 
(ii) make clear that the United States 
Government supports the position that, as 
an integral part of any comprehensive 
Arab-Israeli peace, the issue of refugees 
from the Middle East, North Africa, and 
the Persian Gulf must be resolved in a 
manner that includes recognition of the le-
gitimate rights of and losses incurred by 
all refugees displaced from Arab countries, 
including Jews, Christians, and other 
groups. 
(11) 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 
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to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail him-
self of the protection of that country’’ (the 1951 
Convention relating to the Status of Refugees). 
(12) On January 29, 1957, the United Nations 
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), deter-
mined that Jews fleeing from Arab countries were 
refugees who fell within the mandate of the 
UNHCR. 
(13) Subsequently, in a second UNHCR dec-
laration, Dr. E. Jahn of the Office of the United 
Nations High Commissioner stated, on July 6, 1967: 
‘‘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 in-
form you that such persons may be considered prima 
facie within the mandate of this Office.’’. 
(14) United Nations Security Council Resolu-
tion 242 of November 22, 1967, calls for a ‘‘just set-
tlement of the refugee problem’’ without distinction 
between Palestinian and Jewish refugees, and this is 
evidenced by the following: 
(A) On November 16, 1967, the United 
Kingdom submitted a draft of Resolution 242 
(S/8247) to the United Nations Security Coun-
cil. This United Kingdom draft called for a just 
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settlement of ‘‘the refugee problem’’. The Soviet 
Union submitted its own draft of Resolution 
242 (S/8253) to the United Nations Security 
Council four days later which restricted the just 
settlement to only ‘‘Palestinian refugees’’. 
(B) On November 22, 1967, the United 
Nations Security Council unanimously approved 
the draft of Resolution 242 advanced by the 
United Kingdom. It thus rejected the limitation 
proposed by the Soviet Union and accepted the 
broader notion of a ‘‘just settlement of the ref-
ugee problem’’ arising out of the Middle East 
conflict to include Palestinian and Jewish refu-
gees. 
(C) Justice Arthur Goldberg, the United 
States Chief Delegate to the United Nations at 
that time, who was instrumental in drafting the 
unanimously adopted Resolution 242, pointed 
out that ‘‘The Resolution addresses the objec-
tive of ‘achieving a just settlement of the ref-
ugee 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.’’. 
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(15) In his opening remarks before the January 
28, 1992, organizational meeting for multilateral ne-
gotiations on the Middle East in Moscow, United 
States Secretary of State James Baker made no dis-
tinction 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 dis-
placed from their homes’’. 
(16) The Roadmap to a Permanent Two-State 
Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, which re-
fers in Phase III to an ‘‘agreed, just, fair, and real-
istic solution to the refugee issue’’, uses language 
that is equally applicable to all persons displaced as 
a result of the conflict in the Middle East. 
(17) Israel’s agreements with Egypt, Jordan, 
and the Palestinians have affirmed that a com-
prehensive solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict will 
require a just solution to the plight of all refugees. 
(18) Israel’s long-standing position in support 
of the rights and claims of Jewish refugees from 
Arab countries and Iran is well-established: 
(A) On September 28, 1969, Israel adopt-
ed Government Decision number 34, in which it 
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set up a special, temporary department in the 
Ministry of Justice to gather facts and evidence 
regarding property expropriated and persecu-
tion perpetrated on Jews in Egypt, Iraq, Syria, 
and Yemen. 
(B) On March 3, 2002, Israel adopted 
Government Decision number 1544, in which it 
reaffirmed Government Decision number 34 
and expanded it to include Jews who left all 
Arab countries and Iran. 
(C) On December 28, 2003, Israel adopted 
Government Decision number 1250, in which it 
reaffirmed Government Decisions number 34 
and 1544 and directed the Department for the 
Rights of Jews from Arab Countries in the 
Ministry of Justice to continue collecting infor-
mation on property expropriated and persecu-
tion perpetrated on Jews in Arab countries, cre-
ate a centralized database of this information, 
and publish this information to encourage par-
ties to come forward. 
(19) Recently, in February 2010, the Israeli 
Knesset adopted a law preserving the rights for com-
pensation for Jewish refugees who originated from 
Arab countries and Iran. According to this law, the 
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