[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 583]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          U.N. RESOLUTION 2334

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Florida (Mr. DeSantis) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DeSANTIS. Mr. Speaker, U.N. Resolution 2334 was an anti-Israel 
resolution that sought to erase the history of the Jewish people and 
their connection to their historic homeland.
  Under U.N. Resolution 2334, the Western Wall, which is the holiest 
site in Judaism and the last remnant of the Second Temple, is 
considered occupied territory. You can't even make this up. I think it 
is important to point out that the territory at issue, which we are 
talking about, including the West Bank, which is historic Judea and 
Samaria--some of the oldest Jewish lands dating back thousands of 
years--is disputed. It is not occupied territory.
  When you use that term for things like the Western Wall, you show 
that all you are trying to do is to harm and attack the State of Israel 
but not do this in an intellectually honest way. If you look at the 
Balfour Declaration, that entire mandate was originally for a Jewish 
state, including what is now Jordan.
  As we got into the 1920s, Britain thought that giving what was called 
Transjordan--what is considered to be the eastern part of Palestine--
would be a reward for the help of some of the Arabs during the First 
World War. That had been under Turkish control for hundreds of years 
before World War I. It was then under British control. You have this 
British mandate, and they eventually give Jordan everything east of the 
river; but then Jewish Palestine--this is a Jewish state, which is all 
of Israel proper: Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, you name it--was what 
Britain wanted to do. The League of Nations in 1922, which is the last 
legally binding document, recognized that as well.
  Fast-forward past World War II and we get into the late forties. The 
Arabs always rejected having a state shared with Israel in that 
respect. Then we get to 1948 and the U.N. Partition Plan. How much 
measly less territory for Israel? It is really an indefensible country. 
There is a massive Arab state there; yet Israel accepted even these 
little crumbs of territory. What did the Arabs do? They rejected having 
a state. You had invasions against Israel from all sides, and the goal 
was the annihilation of the Jewish state in 1948.
  Between '48 and '67--we always heard about these 1967 lines. Those 
are not political lines. Those are armistice lines. Israel won the war 
for their independence. They beat back the Arab armies. You had Egypt 
controlling the Gaza Strip and you had Jordan controlling Judea and 
Samaria, what we know as the West Bank.

                              {time}  1100

  So those were armistice lines, never internationally recognized. 
Jordan's occupation of the West Bank was not recognized 
internationally.
  When Arafat founded the PLO, it was in 1964, '65, when you still had 
these armistice lines. So the Palestine Liberation Organization, what 
are they trying to liberate Palestine from? He is not talking about the 
West Bank. He is talking about Israel proper. He wanted to push the 
Jews to the sea.
  So why would we be rewarding? Palestinian Arabs rejected a state in 
'48. They rejected a generous offer in 2000, 2007. Every time, they 
have chosen to go to war with Israel, and they are more opposed to a 
Jewish state than they are interested in their own state.
  We do have an example, though. What happens? You talk about Israel 
occupation. They don't occupy the Gaza Strip. What is the Gaza Strip? 
Is this like a nice la-la land on the Mediterranean? No. It is a terror 
state controlled by Hamas, and they launch incessant rocket attacks 
against Israel.
  So a Palestinian state in this area, Judea-Samaria--West Bank--would 
be what they call judenrein. It would be free of Jews. They would 
ethnically cleanse every Jew who was in anything considered earmarked 
for Palestinian Arabs. It is an interesting contrast, because in 
Israel, Arab Israelis live and prosper, and they are treated as equal 
citizens.
  So we have to get this straight. What the U.N. did was totally 
unacceptable. This body needs to remove funding for the U.N. until they 
repeal that offending resolution, and the new administration needs to 
move our embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in a show of solidarity 
with our friends in Israel.

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