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Palestinian Sanctions Legislation as Passed - House/Senate Comparison Chart

(6/27/06) APN provides a comparison chart for HR 4682 and S. 2370, the recently passed legislation


Link to Chart is at the bottom of this page


The following message and chart were sent to all House and Senate foreign policy staff on Tuesday, June 27, 2006:

On May 23rd the House passed HR 4681, the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006. In response, Americans for Peace Now (APN) issued a statement deploring the passage of the bill and describing the measure as "an exercise in overreaching that will undercut American national security needs, Israeli interests, and hope for the Palestinian people, if it's ever signed into law."

On June 23rd the Senate passed S. 2370, its own version of the Palestinian Terrorism Act of 2006. In response, APN issued a statement welcoming the passage of the bill and noting that "the Senate and House versions of the Palestinian Anti-Terrorist Act are light-years apart in their approach to Hamas' election victory, with S. 2370 reflecting a more sophisticated understanding of the current complexities in the Middle East..."

However, other groups have described the bills as "similar" and having only "slight differences" - arguing, in effect, that the House and Senate are basically in agreement about how to respond to Hamas and about the type of sanctions to impose on the PA and the Palestinian people.

So who is right? APN encourages Members of Congress and staff to decide for themselves. To facilitate this effort, we have compiled the attached table - a side-by-side comparison of each of the provisions included in HR 4681 and S. 2370 (copied directly from the text of each bill). We believe the text speaks for itself.