WASHINGTON (JTA) — A bipartisan slate of House lawmakers introduced a bill that would ensure that claims of Jews from Iran and Arab lands are addressed in any Arab-Israeli peace talks in which the United States is involved.
The bill introduced Wednesday also requires that any administration report to Congress each year what it has done to address the issue of those Jews.
Reps. Jerry Nadler and Eliot Engel, both D-N.Y., Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., and Ted Poe, R-Texas, are the main sponsors of the measure.
A number of groups in recent years have 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 that time.
The statement thanked the American Jewish Committee and B’nai B’rith International for helping to shape the bill.
