[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 120 (Wednesday, July 24, 2024)]
[House]
[Pages H4911-H4912]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          WHERE DO YOU STAND?

  (Mr. GREEN of Texas asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, and still I rise. I rise today to 
remind us of the words of Dr. Martin Luther King: The truest measure of 
the person is not where you stand in times of comfort and convenience 
but where you stand in times of great challenge and controversy.

[[Page H4912]]

  Where do you stand when children in Gaza are being killed by the 
thousands?
  Where do you stand when the infrastructure of Gaza is being 
destroyed--schools, hospitals, homes?
  Where do you stand?
  I cannot in good conscience stand with Mr. Netanyahu. I will not be 
in this facility today when he speaks. I will not, if it is a 
standalone bill, vote to send another dime to Mr. Netanyahu's 
administration.
  It is not just Hamas that he wants to destroy. He is destroying Gaza, 
and he would, if he could, take all of Palestine.
  Mr. Speaker, I cannot in good conscience stand in this House today 
and say that I will attend the Netanyahu address to Congress for the 
same rationale that caused me to vote against the Israel Security 
Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2024. I include in the Record the 
entirety of my rationale, which was published in a Houston Chronicle 
full-page ad on April 25, 2024.

     Re Why I voted no on The Israel Security Supplemental 
         Appropriations Act of 2024
       Israel suffered a tragic loss on October 7, 2023. The 
     people of Israel are in mourning. The lives of innocent 
     civilian Israeli men, women, and especially children matter. 
     They must be protected. This includes the hostages, all of 
     whom must be immediately returned in tandem with a lasting 
     ceasefire as the genesis of a two-state solution.
       After the horrific human rights violations committed by 
     Hamas on October 7, 2023, the Netanyahu administration had 
     just cause catalyzing a de jure right to pursue justice as it 
     did by declaring war on Hamas, not hundreds of thousands of 
     innocent civilian Palestinian men, women, and especially 
     children.
       To the contrary, and shamefully, Prime Minister Netanyahu 
     has engaged in an unjust, revengeful, might-makes-right 
     offense, creating more enemies than have been killed. He has 
     engaged in lethal atrocities wherein the ends of destroying 
     Hamas justifies:
       Killing thousands of innocent civilian Palestinian 
     children;
       Collectively harming thousands upon thousands of innocent 
     civilian Palestinian men, women, and especially children;
       Failing to properly aid hundreds of thousands of food-
     deprived Palestinians; and
       Committing domicide by destroying approximately 62 percent 
     of Palestinian homes in Gaza, as well as damaging at least 84 
     percent of Gaza's health facilities, together with over 275 
     schools.
       It has become intuitively and painfully obvious to me that 
     Prime Minister Netanyahu's definition of ``the right to 
     defend'' embraces an invidious ends-justifies-the-means 
     strategy. This imprudent and unjust strategy of domicide, 
     collective harm, and failure to feed the hungry, in tandem 
     with the killing of thousands of innocent Palestinian 
     children, cannot in good conscience receive a blind eye.
       No one, no political entity, no country can commit such 
     atrocious injustices in the name of justice and expect the 
     blessings of people of good will. Injustice in the name of 
     justice is still an injustice. Israel's de jure right (in the 
     hands of Prime Minister Netanyahu) to defend itself in the 
     name of justice has metamorphosed into unconscionable de 
     facto human rights violations that offend the conscience and 
     grievously tarnishes Israel's global image. In truth, Prime 
     Minister Netanyahu's might makes right, by any means 
     necessary--war--is making Israel an existential threat to 
     Palestinians living in Gaza.
       I cannot in good conscience oppose the above-cited 
     atrocious transgressions and contemporaneously provide the 
     munitions which can beget more of these God-awful 
     inhumanities. Sadly, but righteously, I cannot vote to send 
     the pending billions of supplemental funds to the opprobrious 
     administration of Prime Minister Netanyahu. To do so would 
     allow those funds, or free up other funds in their treasury, 
     to purchase the lethality to kill more innocent civilian 
     Palestinian men, women, and especially children, which I 
     oppose.
       Palestinians (like Israelis) are in mourning, and the lives 
     of innocent civilian Palestinian men, women, and especially 
     children matter. They too must be protected.
       For the reasons enumerated above, I voted no on The Israel 
     Security Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2024.
           Sincerely,
                                                         Al Green,
     Member of Congress.

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