On Monday, House Majority Leader Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) will be bringing a large delegation of freshman Democratic members of Congress to Israel. The Trip is sponsored by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). A Republican group is scheduled to arrive in Israel on Friday.
These trips to Israel are organized in August of every off-election year for new members of Congress. Hoyer will be joined by chairman of the House Democratic Caucus Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY). The presence of these party leaders shows the importance the trip has to party leadership. It is part of the effort to squash some of the questioning of the US-Israel relationship that has been growing within the party.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) are not attending the trip, citing their criticism of AIPAC and the Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza. Omar and Tlaib have both announced plans to visit Israel and the West Bank, separate from the AIPAC trip.
Activists groups like CODEPINK have called on freshmen members of Congress to follow suit and also “Skip the Trip.”
CODEPINK’s website says, “The purpose of AIPAC-sponsored trips is to whitewash Israel’s human rights violations and continue unchecked U.S. financial and diplomatic support for Israel — all at the expense of Palestinian rights.”
The trip comes after the House overwhelmingly passed a symbolic resolution condemning the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. BDS is a campaign that was started to pressure Israel over the occupation of Palestine.
The anti-BDS resolution says BDS “does not favor a two-state solution.” Support for the two-state solution was the excuse progressive members of Congress like Reps Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) used for voting in support of it. The week of the resolution’s passing Israel demolished 10 Palestinian apartment buildings in East Jerusalem. Last week, Israel approved 6,000 new homes to be constructed for Jewish settlers in the West Bank.
Although the anti-BDS resolution doesn’t actually restrict Americans from boycotting Israel, some States prohibit contractors from doing so. Bahia Amawi, a speech pathologist that worked for a school district in Texas since 2009 was going to sign a contract renewal in 2018 when she noticed an addition.
The addition was a certification Amawi had to sign that pledged she “does not currently boycott Israel,” and that she “will not boycott Israel during the term of the contract.” Amawi refused to sign and lost her job. She’s since filed a lawsuit against the school district and the Texas attorney general.
Over the past four years, 27 states have passed similar anti-BDS legislation. Most of the legislation requires state contractors to pledge not to boycott Israel.
The anti-BDS resolution will probably also be used to prevent Rep. Omar’s recently introduced resolution from ever getting a vote. Omar’s resolution is for the purpose of “Affirming that all Americans have the right to participate in boycotts in pursuit of civil and human rights at home and abroad, as protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is up for reelection again in September. Netanyahu failed to form a government after elections in April, forcing Israelis to go back to the polls. Any support from Washington is good for Netanyahu’s chances of reelection. The Democrats are doing as much damage control as they can to prove that the party is still strongly in support of Israel.
Israel is a criminal enterprise
The human rights record of Israel is impossible to defend.
I want to know if my new Democratic Congresswoman, Haley Stevens, is going on that AIPAC trip. I wrote to her to find out.
I also asked why, if she goes, she does not go with Omar and Tlaib and progressives, independently of AIPAC’s power.
We should all make clear to our Representatives how we feel about this.
um, how about not go at all?
Puppets, poodles & cowards chasing the benjamins.
Most disgusting, USA Representatives going to a foreign nation to pay homage to their real handlers. 🙁
US “representatives” must first get blessing from the apartheid entity of Israel before they can “represent” the interests of their American constituents!!! It’s all about the Benjamins, baby.
Good for Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) that they have refused to show their allegiance to the apartheid entity.
Waiting to see how the hasbara trolls spin this one. And note to Omar and Talib: On your visit (not sponsored by AIPAC) stay away from the Gaza border, don’t wear anything that might make you look like an unarmed child, an unarmed member of the press or an unarmed medic. The IDF likes those types the most.
One can almost hear the checks being written already.
What is wrong with the trip. Slaves should go to their masters to to declare their obeisance and servility