H.R. 1136 — Make Gaza Great Again Act

This section establishes the short title of the Act as the “Make Gaza Great Again Act” and states that the Act’s purpose is to ensure the cooperation of Middle Eastern states, excluding Israel, in offering humanitarian entry to Palestinians from Gaza.

This section authorizes the President to impose sanctions on foreign persons charged with representing a foreign government who have rejected a presidential request to grant humanitarian entry to Palestinians from Gaza. It requires the President to submit, within 60 days of enactment, an unclassified list of covered foreign persons to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, with an updated list submitted 180 days after enactment and annually for 5 years thereafter, or sooner as new information becomes available. This section directs the President to impose two types of sanctions on persons included on the most recent list: (1) blocking of property and interests in property under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.), except that section 202 of IEEPA would not apply, and (2) visa-related sanctions, including inadmissibility to the United States, ineligibility for a visa or other entry documentation, and ineligibility for admission, parole, or other benefits under the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq.). It also requires revocation of any existing visa or entry documentation, regardless of when issued, and provides that revocation takes effect immediately and automatically cancels any other valid visa or entry documentation in the foreign person’s possession. This section applies the civil and criminal penalties in section 206 of IEEPA (50 U.S.C. 1705) to violations of regulations issued to carry out the sanctions, to the same extent those penalties apply to violations of IEEPA. Under current law, those penalties include a civil penalty of up to the greater of $250,000 or twice the value of the transaction, and a criminal penalty of up to $1 million, up to 20 years’ imprisonment for a natural person, or both. This section exempts from sanctions activities subject to reporting under title V of the National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 3091 et seq.) and authorized intelligence or law enforcement activities of the United States. It also authorizes the President to waive sanctions or other requirements on a case-by-case basis if the President determines the waiver is in the national interest and submits a classified report to Congress within 120 days after imposing sanctions and every 120 days thereafter until the authority terminates. The authority to impose sanctions under this section sunsets 5 years after enactment.

This section authorizes the President to suspend a country’s major non-NATO ally designation under 22 U.S.C. 2321k(a)(1) and to suspend any and all forms of foreign assistance, including security assistance, for any country whose government has declined a presidential request to offer humanitarian entry to Palestinians from Gaza. It also authorizes the President to terminate any such suspension, concurrent with written notice to the appropriate congressional committees.

This section establishes that nothing in the Act may be construed to apply to Israel or to any national of the State of Israel.