Bill Demands Peace Deals Include Plight of Jews From Arab Lands

Seeking Refuge: Yemenis gather around the ruins of buildings in the Jewish quarter after riots broke out. A new bill seeks to link any discussion of the plight of Palestinian refugees with that of Jews driven from Arab lands. Image by getty images

By JTA March 3, 2016

A bipartisan slate of lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives introduced a bill that would require linking the claims of Jews from Iran and Arab lands to peace deals.

The bill introduced March 2 requires “an annual report to Congress explaining what steps the Executive Branch has taken to address the issue of displaced Jewish refugees, detailing any assistance the United States has provided in this effort, and offering recommendations as to what more can be done to ensure that the interests of all refugees are considered as part of any comprehensive and credible Arab-Israeli peace agreement,” said a statement issued by the offices of the two principle sponsors, Reps. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla.

A number of groups have in recent years demanded that compensation for Palestinians made refugees by the 1948 Independence War be considered in the context of Jews driven out of Arab countries and Iran since then. The statement thanked the American Jewish Committee and B’nai B’rith International for helping to shape the bill.

Also sponsoring the bill are Reps. Ted Poe, R-Texas; Eliot Engel, D-N.Y.; Alan Grayson, D-Fla.; Ted Lieu, D-Calif.; Grace Meng, D-N.Y.; Peter King, R-N.Y.; Beto O’Rourke, D-Texas;Brendan Boyle, D-Pa.; Nydia Velzquez, D-N.Y.; Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill.; Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla.; Steve Chabot, R-Ohio; Daniel Donovan, R-N.Y.; and Alan Lowenthal, D-Calif.

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