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U.S. Congressman Criticizes House Vote Supporting Israel
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| Congressman
David Bonior remarks to the House of Representatives came before
a vote on solidarity with Israel.
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WASHINGTON,
May 5 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Democratic Michigan U.S.
Congressman David E. Bonior, in remarks made before the vote in the
House of Representatives Friday, May 3, criticized a resolution
proclaiming unbridled solidarity with Israel as being unbalanced in
its approach to the conflict in the Middle East.
Speaking
before the legislative body, Bonior pointed out the resolution,
brought at this time, undermines efforts, especially those of U.S.
President George W. Bush’s administration, to bring about conditions
for a ceasefire between the parties.
“This
would be wrong at any time, but in light of what has happened in
Jenin, Bethlehem, Ramallah, Haifa, Jerusalem, Netanya - what continues
to happen - this resolution is dangerous,” he stressed.
Bush
has remarked that there is a “vision of two states, Palestine and
Israel, living side by side in peace and security” and that a
“Palestinian state must be achieved by negotiating an end to
occupation.”
In
addition, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell reiterated that the
U.S. and the international community are committed to helping bring
about a “just, comprehensive and lasting peace in the Middle
East.”
However,
as Bonior pointed out in his remarks, Congress has chosen to ignore
administration efforts and has chosen another track.
“In
supporting this resolution, we are not merely expressing our
‘solidarity’ with Israel, as the resolution’s sponsors would
have us believe,” he pointed out, adding that, “this resolution
blindly supports Israel’s actions against the Palestinians and
wholly denies the generations of suffering of the Palestinian
people.”
“Generations
of Palestinians and Israelis have suffered in the region. But the
violence of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict cannot be examined or
addressed in isolation of the decades of occupation of millions of
Palestinians,” Bonior continued, “Israeli suffering is something
this body has understood and discusses. But what of the suffering of
the Palestinian people?
“What
of the history of land confiscation, water rights, torture,
settlements, collective punishment, home demolitions, curfews,
administrative detentions and expulsions?”
Bonior
continued pointing out injustices against the Palestinians not
addressed in the resolution, including recent events in Jenin and
Israeli efforts at preventing humanitarian relief from reaching the
sick and wounded, as he reminded fellow House members of the history
of the region.
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| Bonior |
“Rarely
is there discussion on this floor of the nearly 420 Palestinian
villages destroyed at the time of Israel’s founding in 1948. Or the
3.8 million refugees registered by the United Nations and the
estimated two million others not registered,” he stressed.
Pointing
failures in agreements reached between Israelis and Palestinian,
Bonior pointed to Israeli failure to live up to those agreements:
“And while we clung to the hope of the peace Oslo would bring,
Palestinians saw a remarkable growth in settlements.”
“When
Palestinians are searching through the rubble of their homes and all
they find are the shell casings and shrapnel bearing the ‘made in
the USA’ label, how will this resolution help them to see past that?
How will this document assist us in getting the parties back to the
table? The short answer is it won't,” a clearly irritated Bonior
commented.
He concluded by stressing the need for a balanced
approach for both parties involved in the conflict: “We owe it to
the generations of Israelis and Palestinians who want to live a life
free of violence and occupation to make peace a priority again. As
Israelis deserve to live with stability and security, so too
Palestinians deserve to live with dignity and justice.”
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