Almost 70 Democrats Call for US to Open Pathways for Palestinian Refugees

A man carries a propane gas cylinder while walking through debris littering a street in the Jabalia refugee area in Gaza City on Oct. 11, 2023, on the fifth day of battles between terrorist group Hamas and Israel. (Mahmud Hams/AFP via Getty Images)

Sixty-nine Democratic lawmakers have urged the departments of State and Homeland Security to accept more Palestinian refugees fleeing the war in Gaza.

“In the eight months since the horrific Oct. 7 terrorist attack by Hamas and the commencement of Israel’s military response, conditions in the Palestinian territories have greatly deteriorated,” the lawmakers wrote in a June 20 letter.

“We urge you to consider opening pathways to Palestinian refugees, particularly those with family members in the United States, to seek relief in the United States.”

The letter, published on World Refugee Day, was addressed to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

It urges Mr. Mayorkas and Mr. Blinken to consider some Palestinian refugees, including those with U.S. relatives, under the “Priority Two” designation under the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.

That would classify them as part of a “group of special concern ... in apparent need of resettlement.”

While Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Reps. Greg Casar (D-Texas), Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), and Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) are the primary signatories, the letter contains dozens of signatures from members of both chambers of Congress including Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Cori Bush (D-Minn.).

The letter also has received support from the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the American Civil Liberties Union, and Project Immigration Justice for Palestinians.

The authors also mentioned that a relatively low number of Palestinian refugees have been accepted into the country—only 56 out of around 60,000 refugees were admitted in 2023, according to the Center for Disaster Philanthropy.

That’s partly because Palestinians have been unable to access the normal pathway to asylum since they were excluded from the 1951 Refugee Convention.

The war in Gaza has displaced around 1.7 million people, according to the United Nations.

Many had fled to the Rafah region, only to be uprooted again in May when Israel moved into the area to disable what it viewed as the last stronghold of Hamas.

Meanwhile, cease-fire talks appeared to have stalled.

A U.S.-backed proposal for a six-week pause in fighting, hostage release, and negotiations for a permanent truce was met with a counter-proposal by Hamas that has frustrated Biden administration officials.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that he won’t stop the military campaign in Gaza until Hamas’s military and governing capabilities have been dismantled, and all Israeli hostages are freed.

The State Department and Department of Homeland Security didn’t respond by press time to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.