[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 124 (Tuesday, July 23, 2019)]
[House]
[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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