Pennsylvania HR 530: A Resolution recognizing the month of April 2026 as "National Arab American Heritage Month" in Pennsylvania.

Bill Text

PRINTER'S NO. 3420
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA
HOUSE RESOLUTION
No. 530
Session of
2026
INTRODUCED BY RABB, KHAN, HOHENSTEIN, WAXMAN, RIVERA, MAYES,
VENKAT, FRANKEL, McNEILL, SANCHEZ, PASHINSKI AND CEPEDA-
FREYTIZ, MAY 14, 2026
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON TOURISM, RECREATION AND ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT, MAY 20, 2026
A RESOLUTION
Recognizing the month of April 2026 as "National Arab American
Heritage Month" in Pennsylvania.
WHEREAS, Arab Americans have been present in this
Commonwealth for over 150 years, with a notable and growing
community established since the late 19th century; and
WHEREAS, This Commonwealth is home to one of the 12 largest
Arab-American populations in the United States; and
WHEREAS, The Arab American Institute estimates that more than
180,000 Arab Americans are living in Pennsylvania and that Arab
Americans in Pennsylvania reside in all 18 congressional
districts; and
WHEREAS, The population in Pennsylvania who identified as
Arab American on the United States Census grew nearly 73%
between 2000 and 2022; and
WHEREAS, The Arab American Development Corporation estimates
30,000 to 50,000 Arab Americans live in the greater Philadelphia
area; and
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17

WHEREAS, The Lehigh Valley, particularly Allentown and
Easton, has a high concentration of Arab Americans and
significant populations in Allegheny County; and
WHEREAS, Several notable Arab Americans have ties to this
Commonwealth, including F. Murray Abraham, the first person of
Arab descent to have won an Academy Award for Best Actor; Samuel
Hazo, a poet, playwright and fiction novelist, named the State
Poet of Pennsylvania in 1993, who is Lebanese-American; and
Richard Kotite, who coached the Philadelphia Eagles from 1991 to
1994, and was one of the earliest Arab-American head coaches in
the National Football League; and
WHEREAS, Arab Americans have been making valuable
contributions to virtually every aspect of our shared civic life
such as medicine, law, business, education, technology, public
service, culture and community organizing; and
WHEREAS, Arab Americans have brought to this Commonwealth
their diverse family structures, commitment to collective
responsibility, rich cultural traditions and pluralistic
expressions of faith and philosophy that strengthen our
Commonwealth; and
WHEREAS, The presence and participation of Arab Americans in
Pennsylvania embodies the possibility of a multiracial democracy
where people of different origins, faiths and traditions build
power together across lines of difference, refusing the false
hierarchies and divisions that ethnocentrism seeks to impose;
and
WHEREAS, Arab Americans from Pennsylvania have served in the
United States Armed Forces and in countless other forms of civic
contribution and struggle, asserting their full belonging and
stake in the democratic project; and
20260HR0530PN3420 - 2 -
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30

WHEREAS, Arab Americans have advanced the entrepreneurial and
cooperative traditions that create economic dignity and shared
prosperity; and
WHEREAS, The celebration of Arab-American heritage serves as
an explicit assertion that all people, regardless of origin or
creed, possess equal dignity and deserve full participation in
our political, economic and cultural life; and
WHEREAS, Arab Americans continue to face discrimination,
bias, harmful stereotyping and racialization that seeks to
render them foreign, threatening or less-than-American; and
WHEREAS, Confronting anti-Arab bias, Islamophobia and all
forms of ethnocentric ideology is essential to building a
Commonwealth where dignity is not contingent on assimilation,
where difference is not treated as disloyalty and where safety
and belonging are guaranteed to all; and
WHEREAS, A genuine multiracial democracy requires us to
actively dismantle the structures and narratives that rank human
beings by origin, religion or ethnicity, and to construct
instead a Commonwealth built on principles of radical equality
and mutual respect; and
WHEREAS, The contributions, resilience and self-determination
of Arab Americans help us envision and build a society where
every individual and community has the power to shape the
conditions of their own life; and
WHEREAS, In 2017, Arab America established "National Arab
American Heritage Month," and in 2021, the White House first
recognized the celebration of "National Arab American Heritage
Month" in a letter to the Arab America Foundation; therefore be
it
RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives recognize the
20260HR0530PN3420 - 3 -
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30

month of April 2026 as "National Arab American Heritage Month"
in Pennsylvania; and be it further
RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives honor Arab-
American heritage not as an act of tolerance, but as recognition
of Arab Americans' integral role in building a multiracial
democracy that tr