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[Pages H7163-H7164]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
HOPE REMAINS FOR PEACE
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
Wisconsin (Mr. Pocan) for 5 minutes.
Mr. POCAN. Madam Speaker, today we will be taking up a resolution to
denounce the BDS movement, the boycott, divestment, and sanctions
against Israel.
This region is not unfamiliar to me, as I have been there twice, in
both Israel and Palestine. I do not support the BDS movement.
When I was last in Palestine, I asked multiple people with whom I met
if they supported the movement, and the response was that they did not,
as they were afraid of the economic effect on Palestine, where many are
already struggling.
However, I also do not support the resolution today, as it goes too
far, in my opinion, in telling people what they can or should think or
say about the situation in Israel.
Israel the country and the Israeli people are good friends of the
United States. They are a strong democracy and a close ally of our
country. I have supported the Iron Dome as a way to deescalate the
tensions that occur when a rocket is sent into Israel from inside Gaza,
for example. It is better to take out that missile before there is any
damage or death rather than returning a volley of rockets back in
response, injuring or killing people of both countries.
But I also think it is okay to be critical of the Netanyahu
administration, or government, and their policies.
Look, if a dear friend does something that jeopardizes themselves or
their family's lives or livelihoods, I have a moral obligation to say
something because I respect my friend. It should be no different with
our response to Israel. People have a right to be concerned about a
number of actions by the Israeli Government.
We have a right to question how continuing to create illegal
settlements into the West Bank will make it harder to broker a two-
state solution, the best path forward toward peace in the region, given
the additional difficulty of the land swaps.
We have a right to question why it is okay to take Palestinian
children, or any child, into a military court for detention by Israel.
We have a right to ask if sectioning off 2 million people in Gaza,
with over a million people needing food assistance and 95 percent not
having access to clean water, will ever lead to peace, or why not
allowing Members of Congress to go into Gaza from Israel is smart. What
don't they want us to see by not allowing us in?
We have a right to ask how demolishing Palestinian homes in East
Jerusalem or the West Bank or crops in Gaza serves to further peace in
the region.
We have a right to ask why it makes sense to have a major highway
with a giant wall in the middle of it with one side for Palestinians
and the other for Israelis, as it looks like something we have judged
poorly previously in history.
We have a right to ask if a bullet directed at a child is an
equivalent response to a thrown rock.
I am not saying that Hamas, the organization that has been recognized
by the United States as a terrorist organization, is innocent or pure--
anything but. But, obviously, not all Palestinians are Hamas by any
stretch of the imagination.
If we really want peace in the region, where we will never have to
send young men and women from our country to risk their lives, then we
need a government in Israel that respects human rights more and works
more aggressively towards peace.
I was told a resolution advocating for a two-state solution would be
up today as well, a resolution I support; but apparently it is not, and
that is a mistake. Instead, only this resolution opposing BDS is up.
And while I do not support BDS, I cannot support this resolution as
worded. My hope is that we will have real peace in the region someday,
that we will have a two-state solution where both Israelis and
Palestinians will live in peace, both internally and with each other.
But this resolution won't do that.
Madam Speaker, I just wish real efforts toward peace were what we
were debating today.
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