Where Do You Stand?

Floor Speech

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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.

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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