1. Short title This Act may be cited as the International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian Peace Authorization Act of 2017 . 2. Findings and purposes (a) Findings Congress finds the following: (1) Peaceful co-existence in the Middle East between Israelis and Palestinians, and between Muslims, Christians, Jews, and those of all backgrounds is in the interests of the United States, Israel, the Palestinian people, and the world. (2) While the United States and its international allies continue to support diplomatic and political negotiations between the representatives of the parties to the conflict as well as others, in the long run such efforts require broad popular support among people in order to succeed. In order to achieve lasting peace in the region, the people who live there must, over time, sustain any potential high-level agreements. (3) Through many independent individual and nongovernmental activities, tens of thousands of people of different backgrounds are already working together to build better relations between people, through people-to-people coexistence and trust-building measures, activities, and other cooperative efforts. (4) By working cooperatively on shared goals and addressing mutual understanding, participants in such activities, including youth, can come to reject violence and understand the promise of peaceful coexistence. (5) Through support for people-to-people exchanges in the region and joint economic initiatives, millions of ordinary citizens affected by this conflict can assist in building support for lasting peace. (6) Working together, the United States, countries around the world, and the private sector can, and often seek to support opportunities that, help sustain support for peace with the establishment and funding of an independent International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian Peace (referred to in this Act as the International Fund ), to promote and support contact, cooperation, dialogue, shared community building, peaceful coexistence, joint economic development, and