III 

113TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. RES. 537 

Reaffirming support for Israel’s right to defend its citizens and ensure the 

survival of the State of Israel, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

AUGUST 1, 2014 

Mr. GRAHAM (for himself and Mr. MENENDEZ) submitted the following 

resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations 

RESOLUTION 

Reaffirming support for Israel’s right to defend its citizens 

and ensure the survival of the State of Israel, and for 

other purposes. 

Whereas, on July 17, 2014, the Senate unanimously passed 

a resolution supporting Israel’s right to defend its citizens and ensure the survival of the State of Israel, condemning the actions of Hamas, and calling for the President of the Palestinian Authority to dissolve the unity 

government arrangement with Hamas; 

Whereas, on July 29, 2014, the Senate unanimously passed 

a resolution condemning Hamas’s terrorist actions and 

use of civilians as human shields and condemning the 

United Nations Human Rights Council’s resolution of 

July 23, 2014; 


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•SRES 537 IS 

Whereas, since June 2014, Hamas has fired over 2,500 rockets at Israel; 

Whereas Hamas has used a system of tunnels to smuggle 

weapons and launch attacks on Israel; 

Whereas 5,000,000 innocent Israeli civilians are currently living under the threat of indiscriminant rocket attacks 

from Gaza; 

Whereas, since ground operations in Gaza began, the Israeli 

Defense Forces (IDF) have discovered more than 30 tunnels to only provide access to Israeli territory to attack 

and kidnap Israelis; 

Whereas Israel has accepted and implemented numerous 

ceasefire agreements that Hamas has rejected; 

Whereas, on July 26, 2014, Hamas continued to fire rockets 

into Israel during a 24-hour truce that Hamas had itself 

proposed; 

Whereas Israel embraced the Egyptian-proposed ceasefire 

agreement, which Hamas resoundingly rejected on July 

27, 2014; 

Whereas, on August 1, 2014, 90 minutes into a humanitarian 

ceasefire, Hamas violated a ceasefire to use one of these 

tunnels to conduct a suicide attack, killing two Israeli 

soldiers and kidnapping 2nd Lt. Hadar Goldin, an IDF 

soldier; 

Whereas Israel has a right to defend itself from Hamas’s 

constant barrage of rockets and to destroy the matrix of 

tunnels Hamas uses to smuggle weapons and Hamas 

fighters into Israel to carry out terrorist attacks; 

Whereas the Government of Israel has taken significant steps 

to protect civilians in Gaza, including dropping leaflets in 


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•SRES 537 IS 

Gaza neighborhoods in advance of Israeli military attacks, calling Palestinians on the phone urging them to 

evacuate certain areas before the military strikes targets, 

and issuing warnings to civilians in advance of firing on 

buildings; 

Whereas Hamas uses civilians in Gaza as human shields by 

placing missile launchers next to schools, hospitals, 

mosques, and private homes; 

Whereas Hamas’ interior ministry has called on residents of 

Gaza to ignore IDF warnings to get out of harm’s way; 

and 

Whereas any effort to broker a ceasefire agreement that does 

not eliminate those threats cannot be sustained in the 

long run and will leave Israel vulnerable to future attacks: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the Senate— 

2 (1) reaffirms its support for Israel’s right to de3 fend its citizens and ensure the survival of the State 

4 of Israel; 

5 (2) condemns Hamas’ repeated violation of hu6 manitarian cease fires and its use of suicide bomb7 ings; 

8 (3) demands Hamas return the IDF soldier 

9 kidnapped on August 1, 2014; 

10 (4) calls on the United Nations Secretary Gen11 eral to immediately condemn all terrorist attacks by 

12 Hamas on Israel; 


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•SRES 537 IS 

1 (5) reiterates its call on Hamas to stop using 

2 residents of Gaza as human shields; 

3 (6) urges the international community to con4 demn the unprovoked rocket fire at Israel; 

5 (7) calls on the Palestinian people to reject 

6 Hamas and its hateful ideology and to seek peace; 

7 and 

8 (8) recognizes that the Government of Israel 

9 must be allowed to take actions necessary to remove 

10 the present and future threats posed by Hamas’ 

11 rockets and tunnels and supports the Government of 

12 Israel’s efforts to deal with the threats posed by 

13 Hamas rockets and tunnels. 

Æ 


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