[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 87 (Wednesday, June 26, 2002)]
[House]
[Page H4034]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      VIOLENCE IN THE MIDDLE EAST

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Weldon) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WELDON of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening to speak to 
the very disturbing trend that we have seen in the growing violence in 
the Middle East of Palestinian terrorists deliberately targeting 
Israeli children.
  As we all know, there has been a tremendous increase over the last 20 
months in the number of deaths, fatalities and woundings from these 
suicide bombers, homicide bombers. But what is particularly disturbing 
is what I see as an emerging trend in all of this to specifically try 
to target children.
  I want to show to my colleagues here a picture and talk about these 
two young people. The first one I want to talk about is this baby over 
here, Shalhevet Pass. Shalhevet was literally in her stroller being 
pushed by her parents when a Palestinian sniper opened fire on the 
family. What is very, very disturbing about this particular incident is 
that, and this was based on the investigation after the event, it 
appeared as though the Palestinian sniper who was shooting at them from 
a hill specifically targeted the baby and targeted the baby first. This 
baby was shot by a gunshot wound to the head while in a stroller.
  The next one I want to talk about is this little girl right here, 
Danielle Shefi. A Palestinian gunman broke into the family home. The 
mother had retreated into the children's bedroom. She was with two 
brothers, and the Palestinian gunman first shot Danielle and killed 
Danielle, then proceeded to shoot the mother and the two brothers. The 
mother and two brothers managed to survive. If you look at some of the 
other trends in these Palestinian attacks, there was a suicide or 
homicide bomber who attacked a discotheque filled with young people. 
Over and over again it appears as though the Palestinians are 
specifically attacking children.
  The Palestinians tried to claim in their defense that the Israeli 
Defense Forces are just as bad, that they shoot Palestinian children 
and they made quite a big deal about a particular case. It involved the 
death of a 12-year-old Mohammed A-Dura during an exchange of gunfire 
between the Israeli Defense Forces and Palestinians. This little boy 
was killed. He got in the crossfire somehow. The Palestinians claim 
that the Israeli Defense Forces specifically targeted Mohammed. The IDF 
did a review. This is not part of Israeli policy, obviously, to attack 
children. They claimed, based on their review, that it was impossible 
for the Israeli Defense Forces to have killed this young boy. The 
Palestinians, of course, dismiss this as propaganda, but what was very 
interesting is German public television decided to do an independent 
review, and they based this on the ballistics, the angle of entry of 
the bullet into the boy, that it was impossible for the Israeli 
soldiers to have killed that boy, but that he was actually killed by 
the Palestinians.
  Some people may say this is hard to believe, that the Palestinians 
would shoot a Palestinian boy, but let us keep in mind that they sent a 
10-year-old boy as a suicide bomber to try to blow up a bunch of 
buildings that ultimately collapsed and killed, I think, 13 Israeli 
Defense Forces. They have sent other teenage suicide bombers. It is 
very, very clear, at least in my opinion and based on my review of this 
issue, that they not only are targeting children, Israeli children, but 
they will even kill their own children for the purpose of furthering 
their political agenda.
  It is my opinion, Mr. Speaker, that this is reprehensible. This is 
horrible. This is beyond the pale. Some people will try to justify 
this, claiming that they have no choice, that they have to resort to 
this. We should never allow this sort of thing to go on. I think it is 
perfectly justifiable for the Israeli Government to reoccupy the 
Palestinian territories. Land for peace has not worked. It has actually 
led to even more violence. The Palestinians have to do what the 
President said. They need to abandon violence. They need to abandon 
these suicide attacks. They need to establish democracy before we will 
ever have lasting peace in the Middle East.

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