IV 
111TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. CON. RES. 29 
Expressing the sense of Congress that the United Nations should take imme-
diate 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 
JANUARY 28, 2009 
Mr. ROTHMAN of New Jersey (for himself, Mr. KIRK, Mrs. MYRICK, Ms. 
BERKLEY, Mr. BURTON of Indiana, Mrs. TAUSCHER, Mr. ENGEL, and 
Mr. GARRETT of New Jersey) submitted the following concurrent resolu-
tion; 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 re-
lief services to Palestinian refugees and is the only 
United Nations agency dedicated to one specific group of 
refugees; 
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•HCON 29 IH 
Whereas UNRWA’s definition of refugees includes not only 
the Palestinian refugees themselves, but also their de-
scendants, 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 sin-
gle donor to this United Nations organization; 
Whereas as of September 2008, the United States has al-
ready 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 Re-
public, 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 refu-
gees 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, edu-
cational, and social service provider for Palestinians liv-
ing in ‘‘refugee’’ camps in the Palestinian territories; 
Whereas according to UNRWA Report of the Board of Audi-
tors 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 29 IH 
or volunteers, and therefore has no means of detecting 
the alteration of financial data or other types of redirec-
tion of UNRWA funding, leaving UNRWA unable to 
technically comply with section 301(c) of the Foreign As-
sistance Act of 1961, which ensures that no United 
States tax dollars support terrorism; 
Whereas UNRWA has employed staffers affiliated with ter-
rorism, 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 ref-
ugees while he was also an operative of the Popular 
Front for the Liberation of Palestine; and Nidal Abd al- 
Fattah 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 ca-
reers 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 class-
room materials that glorify or honor terrorists or ter-
rorism in the past, and continue to use textbooks that in-
clude 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 29 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 Com-
missioner 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 Leb-
anon; 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 
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 
concurring), That Congress— 
(1) strongly urges the Secretary of State to 
take all necessary measures to certify that United 
Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian 
Refugees (UNRWA) operates in full compliance with 
section 301(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act and 
therefore, no American taxpayer dollars are being di-
rected to terrorists or to further terrorist propa-
ganda; 
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