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Shown Here: Introduced in House (11/18/2014)
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.
