Sec. 801. Findings
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Congress makes the following findings: United Nations General Assembly Resolution 302
(1949)created the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) with the temporary, strictly humanitarian mandate to for Palestinian refugees. carry out … direct relief and works programmes UNRWA has acknowledged that it is the , and is responsible solely for Palestinian refugees, while the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is responsible for other refugees across the world. only UN agency that reports directly to the UN General Assembly, and whose beneficiary population stems from one nation-group UNHCR’s definition of a refugee is, in accordance with the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, any 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 to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country … UNRWA’s much broader definition of a Palestine refugee is any person, and his descendants, whose . normal place of residence was [the former British Mandate of] Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948 and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict. UNRWA’s overly inclusive definition of a Palestine refugee has resulted in an increase in UNRWA’s reported number of Palestine refugees from under 1,000,000 in 1950 to over 5,000,000 today, encompassing multiple generations of descendants of the original Palestinian refugees. Hundreds of thousands of Palestine refugees are citizens of recognized states, including Jordan. UNRWA, unlike UNHCR, does not offer refugees the option of resettlement and reintegration into their country of refuge or a third country. Efforts by UN officials in the 1950s to offer resettlement and reintegration as an option for Palestinian refugees were dropped under fierce opposition from Arab governments, and have not been taken up since. Through its overly inclusive definition of a Palestine refugee and its refusal to offer refugees the option of resettlement and reintegration, UNRWA contributes to the perpetuation of the suffering of Palestinian refugees, who have been exploited by Arab governments and Palestinian militant groups for over six decades as a political tool with which to assail Israel. Almost all of UNRWA’s almost 30,000 staff are Palestinian refugees themselves, presenting a clear conflict of interest. UNRWA’s total annual budget, including its core programs, emergency activities and special projects, exceeds almost $1,000,000,000. The United States has long been the largest single contributing country to UNRWA. From 1950 to 2010, the United States has contributed almost $3,900,000,000 to UNRWA, including an average of over $210,000,000 per year between fiscal years 2007 and 2010. Section 301(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 ( 22 U.S.C. 2221(c) ) states that . No contributions by the United States shall be made to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East except on the condition that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency take all possible measures to assure that no part of the United States contribution shall be used to furnish assistance to any refugee who is receiving military training as a member of the so-called Palestine Liberation Army or any other guerrilla type organization or who has engaged in any act of terrorism. Then-Deputy Secretary of State Jacob J. Lew testified before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs on May 13, 2009, that . We have the highest level of scrutiny in terms of UNRWA However, in contravention of United States law, UNRWA does not ask its personnel or aid recipients if they are members of Foreign Terrorist Organizations. Even though the United States remains the largest single contributing country to UNRWA, until 2010, UNRWA did not make available its list of staff for screening through United States watch lists, including that of the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, refused a United States request to do so in 2005, and still does not do so for its list of aid recipients. UNRWA claims that it has fulfilled its obligations under section 301(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 by screening personnel through the United Nations Consolidated List pursuant to United Nations Security Council Resolution 1267, but the names on that list are largely members of Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, not of Palestinian Foreign Terrorist Organizations such as Hamas, Fatah’s al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, or Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Former UNRWA commissioner-general Peter Hansen, stated in 2004 that . I am sure that there are Hamas members on the UNRWA payroll and I don’t see that as a crime. A number of UNRWA personnel have been discovered to be affiliated with Foreign Terrorist Organizations, including, inter alia— Issa Batran (now deceased), a commander of Hamas’s al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades and senior rocket-maker who taught at an UNRWA school in Gaza; Humam Khalil Abu Mulal al-Balawi (now deceased), who reportedly carried out a homicide bombing that killed seven Americans and one Jordanian at Forward Operating Base Chapman in Afghanistan on December 30, 2009, reportedly worked as a physician at an UNRWA clinic in Amman, Jordan, and had longstanding ties to violent Islamist extremism; Said Siam (now deceased), a longtime Hamas official who eventually served as Hamas’s Interior Minister in Gaza, and who taught at an UNRWA school in Gaza; Awad al-Qiq (now deceased), a rocket-builder for Palestinian Islamic Jihad who served as headmaster of an UNRWA school in Gaza; Nahd Atallah, an UNRWA staff member in Gaza, who was arrested, convicted, and sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment by an Israeli military court of using his UN travel document to bypass Israeli checkpoints in Gaza in order to transport armed Palestinian militants; and an UNRWA teacher who reportedly praised homicide bombers and permitted Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin (now deceased) to speak to an assembly of students at an UNRWA school. UNRWA did not terminate the teacher’s employment, instead only giving him a letter of censure. UNRWA staff unions, including the teachers’ union, are frequently controlled by members affiliated with Hamas. Former UNRWA general counsel James Lindsay noted in a 2009 report that— to assure that United States contributions do not provide assistance to any refugee with ties to Foreign Terrorist Organizations, in accordance with section 301(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961; UNRWA … obviously does not take all possible measures in practice ; UNRWA makes no attempt to weed out individuals who support extremist positions … UNRWA has taken very few steps to detect and eliminate terrorists from the ranks of its staff or its beneficiaries, and no steps at all to prevent members of terrorist organizations, such as Hamas, from joining its staff. ; and [I]t is rare for an area staff member … to report or confirm that another staff member has violated rules against political speech, let alone exhibited ties to terrorism. Not surprisingly, external allegations of improper speech or improper use of UNRWA facilities are difficult to prove, as virtually no one is willing to be a witness against gang members. . [T]here are no formal procedures for deregistering or denying services to a properly registered refugee, no matter what he or she does. The late Representative Tom Lantos, in a May 13, 2002, letter, expressed his concern that— ; UNRWA is perpetuating, rather than ameliorating, the situation of Palestinian refugees ; and UNRWA officials have … failed to prevent their camps from becoming centers of terrorist activity inhabitants. for too long, UNRWA has been part of the problem, rather than the solution, in the Middle East … UNRWA camps have fostered a culture of anger and dependency that undermines both regional peace and the well-being of the camps UNRWA has long held accounts at the Arab Bank and the Commercial Bank of Syria (CBS), financial institutions that the United States deems or believes to be complicit in money laundering and terror financing. The Arab Bank is reportedly at the center of United States investigations into how tens of millions of dollars have flowed to Palestinian groups that allegedly used some of those funds to pay off suicide bombers and their relatives, and is also reportedly being sued in Federal court by American victims of attacks in Israel, with attorneys for the victims accusing the bank of facilitating Acts of International Terrorism. On May 11, 2004, the Department of the Treasury designated CBS as a financial institution of primary money laundering concern pursuant to section 311 of the USA Patriot Act, stating that and that CBS had been used by terrorists and their sympathizers and acted as a conduit for the laundering of proceeds generated from the illicit sale of Iraqi oil . numerous transactions that may be indicative of terrorist financing and money laundering have been transferred through CBS, including two accounts at CBS that reference a reputed financier for Usama bin Laden. On August 10, 2011, the Department of the Treasury designated CBS, pursuant to Executive Order 13382, for serving as an . agent for designated Syrian and North Korean proliferators CBS is controlled by the Government of Syria, a State Sponsor of Terrorism. The curriculum of UNRWA schools, which use the textbooks of their respective host governments or authorities, has long contained materials that are anti-Israel, anti-Semitic, and supportive of violent extremism. As far back as over forty years ago, former UNRWA commissioner-general Laurence Michelmore admitted that UNRWA schools were supporting a . bitterly hostile attitude to Israel. Former UNRWA general counsel James Lindsay noted in a January 2009 report that . [T]eachers in UNRWA schools were often afraid to remove posters glorifying martyrs (including suicide bombers) for fear of retribution from armed supporters of the martyrs. UNRWA officials have compromised UNRWA’s strictly humanitarian mandate by engaging in political agitation, propaganda, and advocacy agitation against Israel and in favor of Hamas, as reflected by the following, inter alia: UNRWA officials have repeatedly called for the United States and other nations to deal directly with Hamas and have repeatedly called for political reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah. UNRWA officials have repeatedly castigated Israel for her actions to defend innocent civilians from rocket and mortar attacks from violent extremist groups in Gaza and from other Acts of International Terrorism, and has repeatedly blamed Israel, not Hamas and other violent extremist groups, for present restrictions on access to Gaza. Former UNRWA general counsel James Lindsay noted in a 2009 report that: . Although it occasionally issued mild, pro forma criticisms of Palestinian attacks (most of which were clearly war crimes), [UNRWA] put more effort into criticizing Israeli counterterrorism efforts (which were condemned using language associated with war crimes, though any such crimes were far from proved) … UNRWA never seems to acknowledge that Israel, since its 2005 withdrawal from Gaza, has launched strikes on the territory largely in order to halt rocket attacks and other assaults. Lindsay also noted that . UNRWA—through its leaders and press spokespersons—is constantly involved in political speech . . . These one-sided speeches on political matters do not further the goals of a humanitarian and supposedly nonpolitical agency. UNRWA Commissioner-General Filippo Grandi described as a massacre Israel’s May 31, 2010, naval operation, and use of self-defense measures, to seize the Mavi Marmara ship in order to enforce its naval blockade of the Gaza Strip. Former UNRWA commissioner-general Karen AbuZayd stated in a 2009 meeting with Congressional staff that . We [UNRWA] are not just humanitarian. In January of 2009, UNRWA spokesman Christopher Gunness called for an investigation as to whether Israel had committed a war crime . On December 30, 2008, former UNRWA commissioner-general Karen AbuZayd stated that only Israel was responsible for the start of the most recent conflict in Gaza. On May 25, 2008, in an interview with Press TV, which is controlled by the Government of Iran, former UNRWA commissioner-general Karen AbuZayd reportedly claimed that Hamas was free from corruption and more popular than ever . On October 5, 2007, former UNRWA commissioner-general Karen AbuZayd blamed Israel for violent extremist groups in Gaza launching rockets and mortars against Israeli civilian targets, stating that residents of Gaza . have absorbed—and continue to experience—military incursions in which civilian lives, livelihoods, and property have been destroyed, and to which they have responded with the continuous firing of Qassam rockets into Israel. On March 8, 2007, former UNRWA commissioner-general Karen AbuZayd, comparing the 1948 Arab-Israeli War with more recent conflicts between Israel and Palestinian militant groups, stated that . [T]here is a striking historical continuity in the systematic approach to use overwhelming and disproportionate force in the name of security; to separate and exclude Palestinians from the mainstream; to eject them from their land; and to occupy Palestinian land. On January 19, 2005, former UNRWA commissioner-general Peter Hansen stated that . My job [is] to represent the refugees. In 2002, former UNRWA commissioner-general Peter Hansen falsely accused Israel of carrying out a massacre in UNRWA’s Jenin refugee camp after Israeli forces entered the camp, a base of operations for Palestinian militant groups, to carry out defensive operations to halt repeated homicide bombings in Israel. In 1964, UNRWA allowed its staff to attend the conference in Jerusalem where the Palestine Liberation Organization
(PLO)was established. Despite UNRWA’s contravention of United States law and activities that compromise its strictly humanitarian mandate, UNRWA continues to receive United States contributions, including $233,300,000 in fiscal year 2012. The bilateral Framework for Cooperation that the United States concluded with UNRWA for 2012 actually commends UNRWA and does not commit UNRWA to vetting its aid recipients through United States watch lists. Assistance from the United States and other responsible nations allows UNRWA to claim that criticisms of the agency’s behavior are unfounded. UNRWA spokesman Christopher Gunness has dismissed concerns by stating that . If these baseless allegations were even halfway true, do you really think the U.S. and [European Commission] would give us hundreds of millions of dollars per year? Former UNRWA general counsel James Lindsay noted in a 2009 report that: ; The United States, despite funding nearly 75 percent of UNRWA’s national budget and remaining its largest single country donor, has mostly failed to make UNRWA reflect U.S. foreign policy objectives … Recent U.S. efforts to shape UNRWA appear to have been ineffective … ; [T]he United States is not obligated to fund agencies that refuse to check its rolls for individuals their donors do not wish to support. ; and A number of changes in UNRWA could benefit the refugees, the Middle East, and the United States, but those changes will not occur unless the United States, ideally with support from UNRWA’s other main financial supporter, the European Union, compels the agency to enact reforms. political objectives, it is up to the donors to take the necessary actions to ensure that their interests are respected. When they have done so, UNRWA—given the tight financial leash it has been on for most of its existence—has tended to follow their dictates, even if sometimes slowly. If the [UNRWA commissioner-general’s] power is used in ways that are conflict with the donors The Government of Canada has placed restrictions on its contributions to UNRWA, demonstrating consequences for UNRWA’s malfeasance and setting an example for the United States and other donor governments.
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