[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 302 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
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114th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. RES. 302
Expressing the sense of the Senate in support of Israel and in
condemnation of Palestinian terror attacks.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
November 3, 2015
Mr. Blumenthal (for himself, Ms. Ayotte, Mr. Wyden, Mr. Graham, Mr.
Bennet, Mr. Kirk, Mrs. Murray, Mr. Rubio, Mr. Schumer, Mr. Cornyn, Mrs.
Gillibrand, Ms. Murkowski, Mr. Cardin, Mr. Toomey, Mr. Portman, and Mr.
Heller) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the
Committee on Foreign Relations
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of the Senate in support of Israel and in
condemnation of Palestinian terror attacks.
Whereas Israel is a democratic ally and major strategic partner of the United
States, as codified by the United States-Israel Strategic Partnership
Act of 2014 (Public Law 113-296), and cooperation between Israel and the
United States continues to increase in importance with a swiftly
shifting security situation in the Middle East and North Africa;
Whereas Jerusalem is an undivided city, eternal capital of Israel, holiest city
for the Jewish people, central to the worship of three monotheistic
religions, and unique in the Middle East region as a city of religious
tolerance where Israel guarantees access, security, and respect for the
three monotheistic religions to worship in peace at holy sites;
Whereas, upon Israel securing control of Jerusalem in 1967, it has maintained a
policy of keeping the Haram Al Sharif specifically open for Muslim
prayer, welcoming over 3,500,000 regular worshipers annually;
Whereas the Government of Israel upholds the 1994 Treaty of Peace Between the
State of Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, which states in
Article Nine that each party ``will provide freedom of access to places
of religious and historical significance,'' as well as ``act together to
promote interfaith relations among the three monotheistic religions,
with the aim of working toward religious understanding, moral
commitment, freedom of religious worship, and tolerance and peace'';
Whereas Yasser Arafat, Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO),
committed in his exchange of letters with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak
Rabin on September 9, 1993, that ``the PLO renounces the use of
terrorism and other acts of violence and will assume responsibility over
all PLO elements and personnel in order to assure their compliance,''
and under the subsequent 1995 Oslo II Accord, the Palestinians pledged
to ``abstain from incitement, including hostile propaganda . . . [and
to] take legal measures to prevent such incitement by any organizations,
groups or individuals within their jurisdiction'';
Whereas the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, wrongly
announced during the tenth anniversary of Yasser Arafat's death in
November 2014 that Israel has no claim to Jerusalem, that the Temple
Mount will not be allowed to be ``contaminated'' by Jews, and that
Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount would lead to a ``devastating
religious war'';
Whereas President Abbas falsely claimed during his address to the United Nations
General Assembly in September 2015 that the Government of Israel has
used ``brutal force to impose its plans to undermine the Islamic and
Christian sanctities in Jerusalem'' and announced that the Palestinian
Authority is no longer bound by the Oslo Accords;
Whereas Israel has in recent weeks been subjected to an alarming wave of
terrorism directed against innocent civilians by Palestinians armed with
knives, meat cleavers, guns, and cars;
Whereas there have been approximately 69 such attacks since the beginning of
October 2015, leaving 11 Israelis dead and another 145 wounded;
Whereas United States citizens have lost their lives as a result of these
terrorist attacks, including Richard Lakin and Eitam Henkin;
Whereas these random, gruesome attacks are intended to instill a sense of fear
among the people of Israel leading their normal lives, and also
destabilize security for both Palestinians and Israelis;
Whereas Israel, Jordan, and the United States have reached an agreement
regarding the installation of surveillance cameras on the Temple Mount
in accordance with the respective responsibilities of the Israeli
authorities and the Jordanian Waqf;
Whereas President Abbas has helped to fuel the current violence in recent weeks
by falsely casting Israel as the brutal aggressor in multiple public
speeches, refusing to condemn the lethal terror attacks, and failing to
acknowledge Israel's right to self-defense;
Whereas President Abbas' statements are part of a pattern of incitement among
Palestinian leaders that includes denial of the Jewish heritage of
Jerusalem, paying monthly salaries to the families of imprisoned
Palestinian terrorists, praising slain terrorists as martyrs, demonizing
Jews in official Palestinian Authority media, and encouraging attacks on
social media; and
Whereas Palestinian leaders have repeatedly threatened to suspend cooperation
and further encouraged violence by blaming Israel for killing
Palestinian perpetrators of these heinous crimes: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Senate--
(1) condemns these brutal attacks in the harshest terms
possible;
(2) welcomes Israel's commitment to the continued
maintenance of the status quo on the Temple Mount;
(3) urges the President and the international community to
join in forcefully condemning these Palestinian terror attacks;
(4) clarifies that there is no justification for these
types of attacks and that there is a direct correlation between
the recent upsurge in violence and Arab incitement regarding
the Temple Mount;
(5) stands with the people of Israel during these difficult
days;
(6) supports Israel's right to self-defense and rejects any
suggestion of the moral equivalence of Israeli security
personnel protecting its citizens from senseless violence and
terrorists intent to deliberately take innocent lives;
(7) supports the agreement reached to install surveillance
cameras on the Temple Mount according to the arrangements to be
determined between the parties;
(8) calls upon President Abbas to stop all incitement by
Palestinian officials and by Palestinian media, to strongly and
unequivocally demand an end to the violence, and to take all
steps necessary to halt these attacks;
(9) expresses support and admiration for individuals and
organizations working to encourage cooperation between Israelis
and Palestinians;
(10) encourages President Abbas to continue strengthening
and maintaining security cooperation with Israel;
(11) reiterates that Palestinian political goals will never
be achieved through violence; and
(12) calls on all parties to return to the negotiating
table immediately and without preconditions, as direct
discussions remain the best avenue to ending the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict.
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