On Thursday, members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus — including Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Cori Bush (D-MO), and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) — spoke out against the violence taking place in the Gaza Strip and Israel during a special order hour on the House floor organized by Reps. Mark Pocan (D-WI) and Marie Newman (D-IL). This followed President Biden’s remarks on Wednesday when he stated his “unwavering support for Israel’s security” and “Israel’s legitimate right to defend itself.” During Thursday’s special order hour, Pocan, said, “No one should suffer the loss of life, liberty, or dignity that the Palestinian people have suffered under [Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu and previous administrations in Israel during the 50-year occupation of the West Bank.” He later tweeted, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
“My mere existence has disrupted the status quo. I am a reminder to colleagues that Palestinians do indeed exist. That we are human. That we are allowed to dream. We are mothers, daughters, granddaughters. We are justice seekers and are unapologetically about our fight against oppressions of all forms,” said Tlaib, the daughter of Palestinian immigrants. “Colleagues, Palestinians aren’t going anywhere, no matter how much money you send to Israel’s apartheid government. If we are to make good on our promises to support equal human rights for all, it is our duty to end the apartheid system that for decades has subjected Palestinians to inhumane treatment and racism. Reducing Palestinians to live in utter fear and terror of losing a child. Being indefinitely detained or killed because of who they are and the unequal rights and protections they have under Israeli law. It must end.”
The money Tlaib is referring to is the $3.8 billion per year in military aid that the U.S., on average, provides to Israel. In April, Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN) introduced a bill that aims to “ensure that United States taxpayer funds are not used by the Government of Israel to support the military detention of Palestinian children, the unlawful seizure, appropriation, and destruction of Palestinian property and forcible transfer of civilians in the West Bank, or further annexation of Palestinian land in violation of international law.” The bill has received support from dozens of organizations, including Palestinian human rights and progressive Jewish organizations, in addition to more than a dozen members of Congress.
“This is our business because we are playing a role in it. And the United States has to acknowledge its role in the injustice and human rights violations of Palestinians. This is not about both sides. This is about an imbalance of power,” said AOC. Omar expressed a similar sentiment, saying, “The truth is, that this is not a conflict between two states. This is not a civil war. It is a conflict where one country, funded and supported by the United States government, continues an illegal military occupation over another group of people.”
When speaking of the violence, Pressley and Bush drew comparisons to the treatment of Black Americans in the U.S. “As a Black woman in America, I am no stranger to police brutality and state-sanctioned violence. We have been criminalized for the very way we show up in the world. Last summer, when Black Lives Matter protesters took to the streets to demand justice, they were met with force. They faced tear gas, rubber bullets, and a militarized police, just as our Palestinian brothers and sisters are facing in Jerusalem today,” said Pressley, “Palestinians are being told the same thing as Black folks in America: ‘There is no acceptable form of resistance.’”
“St. Louis and I rise today in solidarity with the Palestinian people in memory of our brother, Bassem Masri, a Ferguson activist who was with us on the front lines of our uprising for justice following the police murder of Michael Brown, Jr.,” said Bush. She went on to compare the heavily militarized police response in Black communities in the U.S., including Ferguson in 2014, with what is happening to Palestinians today. She later tweeted, “The fight for Black lives and the fight for Palestinian liberation are interconnected. We oppose our money going to fund militarized policing, occupation, and systems of violent oppression and trauma. We are anti-war. We are anti-occupation. And we are anti-apartheid. Period.”
A day earlier, two Democratic representatives, Elaine Luria (D-VA) and Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) made comments on the House floor in support of Israel. “No matter our disagreements, there should be no false equivalences or excuses made by anyone on behalf of a foreign terrorist organization,” said Gottheimer, referring to Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza and is classified as a foreign terrorist organization by the United States.
Reuters reported that 13 people, including children, were killed in the Israeli government’s latest attack in the Gaza Strip, using tanks, artillery fire, and air strikes from 160 aircraft in response to continued Hamas rockets. On Tuesday, Netanyahu said that militants in the Gaza Strip will "pay a very heavy price” for the rocket fire. On Tuesday, during a televised speech, he said, "Hamas and Islamic Jihad paid ... and will pay a very heavy price for their belligerence ... their blood is forfeit."
Violence erupted across the region this week after Israeli police attacked Muslim Palestinians during Ramadan at Al-Aqsa Mosque with rubber bullets, stun grenades, and tear gas, followed by rocket attacks from Hamas, many of which were intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome defense system. Riots broke out in cities including Lod, Bat Yam, and Acre, according to CNN. Palestinian medical officials said that the fighting has left 900 people wounded and at least 122 people killed in Gaza, including 31 children and 20 women, according to Reuters. Eight Israelis, including a soldier and two children, have been killed, according to Israeli authorities.
Want more from Teen Vogue? Check this out: The Violence in Jerusalem Over the Pending Evictions of Palestinians Horrifies Me
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