Opposing Any Endorsement Or Further Consideration Of Report Of The United Nations Fact Finding Mission On The Gaza Conflict

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. McCOLLUM. Madam Speaker, this resolution harms U.S. national security interests in the Middle East. The U.S. is attempting to be an honest broker in the Israeli-Palestine peace process, yet this resolution is blatantly biased, and it damages U.S. credibility.

This resolution seeks to hide the ugliness of the Gaza war by covering up violent excesses committed against innocent civilians by both Hamas and the Israeli Defense Forces. Why does the U.S. House want to reject an accounting of Hamas' terrorism against Israeli civilians, as if thousands of rockets were not fired at Israel? And why would this resolution want to deny that hundreds of Palestinian women and children and elders were needlessly killed?

American-made white phosphorous shells were used by Israel in civilian areas, causing horrible burns to Palestinian children, yet this resolution refuses to seek the truth. The report Congress is burying today was led by a former chief prosecutor who has faced far tougher actors than the critics in this Chamber, critics who have not held one single hearing.

There must be only one standard for respecting human rights, a single standard by which we must hold ourselves and our friends and our adversaries accountable.

* [Begin Insert]

Madam Speaker, this resolution harms U.S. national security interests in the Middle East and American leadership for human rights and humanitarian law. And, while the U.S. attempts to be an honest-broker in an Israeli-Palestinian peace process this resolution is blatantly biased and damages U.S. credibility.

This resolution seeks to hide the ugliness of the Gaza war by covering-up the violent excesses committed against innocent civilians by Hamas and the Israeli Defense Forces.

Why does the U.S. House want to reject an accounting of Hamas's terrorism against Israeli civilians as if thousands of rockets were not fired at Israel?

Why does this resolution want to deny that hundreds of Palestinian women and elders were needlessly killed by the IDF?

American-made white phosphorus shells were used by Israel in civilian areas causing horrible burns to Palestinian children, yet this resolution refuses to seek the truth?

The report Congress is burying today was led by a former chief prosecutor for war crimes in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, a jurist of exceptional experience who has faced far tougher actors than his critics in this Chamber, critics who have not held a single hearing or conducted a single fact-finding mission on the subject of his report.

There must be only one standard for respecting human rights, a single standard by which we must hold ourselves, our friends, and our adversaries accountable. Establishing situational standards for respecting human rights is dishonest and only encourages actions that destroy human dignity and life.

Therefore I agree with U.N. Secretary Ban Ki-moon who recently said at the Anti-Defamation League's annual dinner that he is ``a friend who is acutely aware of Israel's security needs.'' But on the issue of the Goldstone report Secretary Ban said, ``When human rights are violated anywhere in the world we need accountability.''

Today, I would ask my colleagues to vote for human rights and accountability by voting against this resolution.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source