[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Page 17024]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS

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SENATE RESOLUTION 302--EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE SENATE IN SUPPORT OF 
        ISRAEL AND IN CONDEMNATION OF PALESTINIAN TERROR ATTACKS

  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:

                              S. Res. 302

       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 Israelis 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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