IV 
108TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. RES. 838 
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regarding the creation 
of refugee populations in the Middle East, North Africa, and the Persian 
Gulf region as a result of human rights violations. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
OCTOBER 7, 2004 
Mr. NADLER (for himself and Mr. LANTOS) submitted the following resolution; 
which was referred to the Committee on International Relations 
RESOLUTION 
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regard-
ing the creation of refugee populations in the Middle 
East, North Africa, and the Persian Gulf region as a 
result of human rights violations. 
Whereas Jews and other ethnic groups have lived mostly as 
minorities in the Middle East, North Africa, and the Per-
sian Gulf region for more than 2,500 years, more than 
1,000 years before the advent of Islam; 
Whereas the United States has long voiced its concern about 
the mistreatment of minorities and the violation of 
human rights in the Middle East and elsewhere; 
Whereas the United States continues to play a pivotal role in 
seeking an end to conflict in the Middle East and to pro-
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moting a peace that will benefit all the people of the re-
gion; 
Whereas a comprehensive peace in the region will require the 
resolution of all outstanding issues through bilateral and 
multilateral negotiations involving all concerned parties; 
Whereas the discussion of refugees in the Middle East gen-
erally centers on Palestinian refugees, even though esti-
mates indicate that, as a result of the 1948 war in which 
numerous Arab armies attacked the newly-founded State 
of Israel, more Jews (approximately 850,000) were dis-
placed from Arab countries than were Palestinians (ap-
proximately 726,000) from Israel; 
Whereas the United States has demonstrated interest and 
concern about the mistreatment, violation of rights, 
forced expulsion, and expropriation of assets of minority 
populations in general, and in particular, former Jewish 
refugees displaced from Arab countries, as evidenced, 
inter alia, by the following actions: 
(1) A Memorandum of Understanding signed by 
President Jimmy Carter and Israeli Foreign Minister 
Moshe Dayan on October 4, 1977, states that ‘‘[a] solu-
tion of the problem of Arab refugees and Jewish refugees 
will be discussed in accordance with rules which should 
be agreed’’. 
(2) After negotiating the Camp David Accords, the 
Framework for Peace in the Middle East, President 
Jimmy Carter stated 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’’. 
(3) In an interview with Israeli television imme-
diately after the issue of the rights of Jews displaced
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from Arab lands was discussed at Camp David II in July 
2000, President Clinton stated clearly that ‘‘[t]here will 
have to be some sort of international fund set up for the 
refugees. There is, I think, some interest, interestingly 
enough, on both sides, in also having a fund which com-
pensates 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 pre-
dominantly Arab countries who came to Israel because 
they were made refugees in their own land.’’. 
(4) In Senate Resolution 76, 85th Congress, agreed 
to January 29, 1957, the Senate— 
(A) notes that individuals in Egypt who are tied 
by race, religion, or national origin with Israel, 
France, or the United Kingdom have been subjected 
to arrest, forced exile, confiscation of property, and 
other punishments although not charged with any 
crime; and 
(B) requests the President to instruct the chief 
delegate to the United Nations to urge the prompt 
dispatch of a United Nations observer team to 
Egypt with a view to obtain a full factual report 
concerning this violation of rights. 
(5) In House Concurrent Resolution 158, 85th Con-
gress, Congress notes that the Government of Egypt had 
initiated a series of measures against the Jewish commu-
nity, that many Jews were arrested as a result of such 
measures, that, beginning in November 1956, many Jews 
were expelled from Egypt, and that the Jews of Egypt 
faced sequestration of their goods and assets and denial 
or revocation of Egyptian citizenship, and resolves that 
the treatment of Jews in Egypt constituted ‘‘persecution 
on account of race, religious beliefs, or political opin-
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ions’’, further resolving that these issues should be raised 
by the United States either in the United Nations or by 
other appropriate means. 
(6) Section 620 of H.R. 3100, 100th Congress, 
states that Congress finds that ‘‘with the notable excep-
tions of Morocco and Tunisia, those Jews remaining in 
Arab countries continue to suffer deprivations, degrada-
tions, and hardships, and continue to live in peril’’ and 
that Congress calls upon the governments of those Arab 
countries where Jews still maintain a presence to guar-
antee their Jewish citizens full civil and human rights, in-
cluding the right to lead full Jewish lives free of fear and 
to emigrate if they so choose; 
Whereas the seminal United Nations resolution on the Arab- 
Israeli conflict and other international initiatives refer 
generally to the plight of ‘‘refugees’’ and do not make 
any distinction between Palestinian and Jewish refugees, 
including the following: 
(1) United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 
of November 22, 1967, calls for a ‘‘just settlement of the 
refugee problem’’ without distinction between Palestinian 
and Jewish refugees. Justice Arthur Goldberg, the 
United States delegate to the United Nations at that 
time, has pointed out that ‘‘a notable omission in 242 is 
any reference to Palestinians, a Palestinian state on the 
West Bank or the PLO. The resolution addresses the ob-
jective of ‘achieving a just settlement of the refugee prob-
lem.’ 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’’. 
(2) The Madrid Conference, which was first con-
vened in October 1991 and was co-chaired by United 
States President George H.W. Bush and President of the
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U.S.S.R. Mikhail Gorbachev, included delegations from 
Spain, the European Community, the Netherlands, 
Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon, as well as a joint Jordanian- 
Palestinian delegation. In his opening remarks before the 
January 28, 1992, organizational meeting for multilat-
eral negotiations on the Middle East in Moscow, United 
States Secretary of State James Baker made no distinc-
tion 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 displaced from their homes’’. 
(3) The Roadmap to a Permanent Two-State Solu-
tion to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, in referring to an 
‘‘agreed, just, fair, and realistic solution to the refugee 
issue,’’ uses language that is equally applicable to all per-
sons displaced as a result of the conflict in the Middle 
East; 
Whereas Egypt, Jordan, and the Palestinians have affirmed 
that a comprehensive solution to the Middle East conflict 
will require a just solution to the plight of all ‘‘refugees’’ 
as evidenced by the following: 
(1) The 1978 Camp David Accords, the Framework 
for Peace in the Middle East, includes a commitment by 
Egypt and Israel to ‘‘work with each other and with 
other interested parties to establish agreed procedures for 
a prompt, just and permanent resolution of the imple-
mentation of the refugee problem.’’ The Treaty of Peace 
between Israel and Egypt, signed at Washington, D.C. 
March 26, 1979, in addition to general references to 
United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 as the 
basis for comprehensive peace in the region, provides in 
Article 8 that the ‘‘Parties agree to establish a claims
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commission for the mutual settlement of all financial 
claims,’’ including those of former Christian and Jewish 
refugees displaced from Egypt. 
(2) Article 8 of the Treaty of Peace Between the 
State of Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, 
done at Arava/Araba Crossing Point October 26, 1994, 
entitled ‘‘Refugees and Displaced Persons’’ recognizes 
‘‘the massive human problems caused to both Parties by 
the conflict in the Middle East.’’ The reference to mas-
sive human problems in a broad manner suggests that 
the plight of all refugees of ‘‘the conflict in the Middle 
East’’ includes Jewish refugees from Arab countries; 
Whereas the United States is encouraged by recent state-
ments by Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi that he is 
ready to compensate Libyan Jews whose properties were 
confiscated and that he is prepared to allow Libyans to 
travel to Israel; 
Whereas the Law of Administration for the State of Iraq for 
the Transitional Period, signed at Baghdad March 8, 
2004, is a landmark document that enshrines the ‘‘right 
to freedom of thought, conscience, and religious belief 
and practice’’ that had long been denied to Iraqis and 
states that ‘‘the Transitional Government shall take steps 
to end the vestiges of the oppressive acts arising from,’’ 
among other things, ‘‘forced displacement, deprivation of 
citizenship, [and] expropriation of financial assets and 
property’’; and 
Whereas, while progress is being made, continued emphasis 
needs to be placed on the rights and redress for Jewish 
refugees: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved,
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SENSE OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ON HUMAN 
RIGHTS AND REFUGEES 
SECTION 1. It is the sense of the House of Represent-
atives that— 
(1) the United States deplores the past and 
continuing violation of the human rights and reli-
gious freedoms of minority populations in Arab 
countries; 
(2) with respect to Jews and Christians dis-
placed from Arab countries, for any comprehensive 
Middle East peace agreement to be credible, durable, 
and enduring, constitute an end to conflict in the 
Middle East, and provide for finality of all claims, 
the agreement must address and resolve all out-
standing issues, including the legitimate rights of all 
peoples displaced from Arab countries; and 
(3) the United States will work to ensure that 
the provisions of both the Law of Administration for 
the State of Iraq for the Transitional Period, signed 
at Baghdad March 8, 2004, and the permanent con-
stitution to be presented to the people of Iraq for 
approval in a general referendum no later than Oc-
tober 15, 2005— 
(A) are universally applied to all groups 
forced to leave Iraq; and
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(B) will rectify the historical injustices and 
discriminatory measures perpetrated by pre-
vious Iraqi regimes. 
UNITED STATES POLICY ON MIDDLE EAST REFUGEES 
SEC. 2. The House of Representatives urges the 
President to— 
(1) instruct the United States Representative to 
the United Nations and all United States represent-
atives in bilateral and multilateral fora that, when 
the United States considers or addresses resolutions 
that allude to the issue of Middle East refugees, the 
United States delegation should ensure that— 
(A) the relevant text refers to the fact that 
multiple refugee populations have been caused 
by the Arab-Israeli conflict; and 
(B) any explicit reference to the required 
resolution of the Palestinian refugee issue is 
matched by a similar explicit reference to the 
resolution of the issue of Jewish refugees from 
Arab countries; and 
(2) make clear that the United States Govern-
ment supports the position that, as an integral part 
of any comprehensive peace, the issue of refugees 
and the mass violations of human rights of minori-
ties in Arab countries must be resolved in a manner 
that includes—
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(A) redress for the legitimate rights of all 
refugees displaced from Arab countries; and 
(B) recognition of the fact that Jewish and 
Christian property, schools, and community 
property was lost as a result of the Arab-Israeli 
conflict. 
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