Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher
1034 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC  20515

May 23, 2006

Dear Congresswoman Tauscher:           

The Resolution H. Res 848 in the House and S. Res 494 in the Senate is titled “The creation of refugee populations in the Middle East, North Africa and the Persian Gulf region as a result of human rights violations. In an unprecedented initiative, Tom Lantos and three other Representatives and four Senators, representing both political parties, have introduced landmark Resolutions on Middle East refugees in the United States Senate and in the House of Representatives.

Far-reaching and comprehensive, these Resolutions instruct the President to ensure that in all international forums, when the issue of ‘Middle East refugees is discussed, representatives of the United States must ensure: “That any explicit reference to Palestinian refugees is matched by a similar explicit reference to Jewish and other refugees, as a matter of law and equity.”

This bi-partisan effort is being spearheaded by Senators Rick Santorum (R-PA) and Norm Coleman (R-MN), as well as Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ). On the House side, supporters include Congressmen Tom Lantos (D-CA) and Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) as well as Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) and Michael Ferguson (R-NJ).

Driving this initiative is the fact that within the context of the Middle East, people invariably refer to Palestinian refugees, not former Jewish refugees from Arab countries. Yet, there were two major population movements that occurred during years of turmoil in the Middle East – Arabs AND Jews – both of whom were determined to be bona fide refugees under international law. In fact, there were more former Jewish refugees uprooted from Arab countries (over 850,000) than there were Palestinians who became refugees in 1948. (UN estimate: 726,000)

The Resolution will be the strongest declaration adopted in the U.S. by Congress, acknowledging the rights of Jewish and others refugees that were forced to flee Arab countries.

We ask for your support and assistance by co-sponsoring this resolution and in helping us to enlist others as co-sponsors. Thank you for your consideration of this Resolution.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact JIMENA at 415.977.7407 or Justice for Jews from Arab countries at 973-669-9788.

We look forward to seeing your name on the list of co-sponsors.

Yours,

Sarah Q. Constituent
1234 Suburban Street
Walnut Creek, Ca 94598

The former UNRWA and the latter by the UNHCR.

[Estimates based on UN document “Trends and Characteristics of International Migration since 1950 – Refugee Movements and Population Transfers” (UN Department for Economic and Social Affairs, Demographic Study No. 64 ST/ESA/Ser. A/64)]