III 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. RES. 302 

Expressing the sense of the Senate in support of Israel and in condemnation 

of Palestinian terror attacks. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

NOVEMBER 3, 2015 

Mr. BLUMENTHAL (for himself, Ms. AYOTTE, Mr. WYDEN, Mr. GRAHAM, Mr. 

BENNET, Mr. KIRK, Mrs. MURRAY, Mr. RUBIO, Mr. SCHUMER, Mr. CORNYN, Mrs. GILLIBRAND, Ms. MURKOWSKI, Mr. CARDIN, Mr. TOOMEY, 

Mr. PORTMAN, and Mr. HELLER) submitted the following resolution; 

which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations 

RESOLUTION 

Expressing the sense of the Senate in support of Israel 

and in condemnation of Palestinian terror attacks. 

Whereas Israel is a democratic ally and major strategic partner of the United States, as codified by the United 

States-Israel Strategic Partnership Act of 2014 (Public 

Law 113–296), and cooperation between Israel and the 

United States continues to increase in importance with a 

swiftly shifting security situation in the Middle East and 

North Africa; 

Whereas Jerusalem is an undivided city, eternal capital of 

Israel, holiest city for the Jewish people, central to the 

worship of three monotheistic religions, and unique in the 

Middle East region as a city of religious tolerance where 


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Israel guarantees access, security, and respect for the 

three monotheistic religions to worship in peace at holy 

sites; 

Whereas, upon Israel securing control of Jerusalem in 1967, 

it has maintained a policy of keeping the Haram Al 

Sharif specifically open for Muslim prayer, welcoming 

over 3,500,000 regular worshipers annually; 

Whereas the Government of Israel upholds the 1994 Treaty 

of Peace Between the State of Israel and the Hashemite 

Kingdom of Jordan, which states in Article Nine that 

each party ‘‘will provide freedom of access to places of religious and historical significance,’’ as well as ‘‘act together to promote interfaith relations among the three 

monotheistic religions, with the aim of working toward 

religious understanding, moral commitment, freedom of 

religious worship, and tolerance and peace’’; 

Whereas Yasser Arafat, Chairman of the Palestine Liberation 

Organization (PLO), committed in his exchange of letters 

with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on September 

9, 1993, that ‘‘the PLO renounces the use of terrorism 

and other acts of violence and will assume responsibility 

over all PLO elements and personnel in order to assure 

their compliance,’’ and under the subsequent 1995 Oslo 

II Accord, the Palestinians pledged to ‘‘abstain from incitement, including hostile propaganda . . . [and to] take 

legal measures to prevent such incitement by any organizations, groups or individuals within their jurisdiction’’; 

Whereas the President of the Palestinian Authority, 

Mahmoud Abbas, wrongly announced during the tenth 

anniversary of Yasser Arafat’s death in November 2014 

that Israel has no claim to Jerusalem, that the Temple 

Mount will not be allowed to be ‘‘contaminated’’ by Jews, 


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and that Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount would lead 

to a ‘‘devastating religious war’’; 

Whereas President Abbas falsely claimed during his address 

to the United Nations General Assembly in September 

2015 that the Government of Israel has used ‘‘brutal 

force to impose its plans to undermine the Islamic and 

Christian sanctities in Jerusalem’’ and announced that 

the Palestinian Authority is no longer bound by the Oslo 

Accords; 

Whereas Israel has in recent weeks been subjected to an 

alarming wave of terrorism directed against innocent civilians by Palestinians armed with knives, meat cleavers, 

guns, and cars; 

Whereas there have been approximately 69 such attacks since 

the beginning of October 2015, leaving 11 Israelis dead 

and another 145 wounded; 

Whereas United States citizens have lost their lives as a result of these terrorist attacks, including Richard Lakin 

and Eitam Henkin; 

Whereas these random, gruesome attacks are intended to instill a sense of fear among the people of Israel leading 

their normal lives, and also destabilize security for both 

Palestinians and Israelis; 

Whereas Israel, Jordan, and the United States have reached 

an agreement regarding the installation of surveillance 

cameras on the Temple Mount in accordance with the respective responsibilities of the Israeli authorities and the 

Jordanian Waqf; 

Whereas President Abbas has helped to fuel the current violence in recent weeks by falsely casting Israel as the brutal aggressor in multiple public speeches, refusing to conVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:14 Nov 03, 2015 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR302.IS SR302

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demn the lethal terror attacks, and failing to acknowledge Israel’s right to self-defense; 

Whereas President Abbas’ statements are part of a pattern 

of incitement among Palestinian leaders that includes denial of the Jewish heritage of Jerusalem, paying monthly 

salaries to the families of imprisoned Palestinian terrorists, praising slain terrorists as martyrs, demonizing 

Jews in official Palestinian Authority media, and encouraging attacks on social media; and 

Whereas Palestinian leaders have repeatedly threatened to 

suspend cooperation and further encouraged violence by 

blaming Israel for killing Palestinian perpetrators of 

these heinous crimes: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the Senate— 

2 (1) condemns these brutal attacks in the 

3 harshest terms possible; 

4 (2) welcomes Israel’s commitment to the contin5 ued maintenance of the status quo on the Temple 

6 Mount; 

7 (3) urges the President and the international 

8 community to join in forcefully condemning these 

9 Palestinian terror attacks; 

10 (4) clarifies that there is no justification for 

11 these types of attacks and that there is a direct cor12 relation between the recent upsurge in violence and 

13 Arab incitement regarding the Temple Mount; 

14 (5) stands with the people of Israel during 

15 these difficult days; 


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1 (6) supports Israel’s right to self-defense and 

2 rejects any suggestion of the moral equivalence of 

3 Israeli security personnel protecting its citizens from 

4 senseless violence and terrorists intent to delib5 erately take innocent lives; 

6 (7) supports the agreement reached to install 

7 surveillance cameras on the Temple Mount according 

8 to the arrangements to be determined between the 

9 parties; 

10 (8) calls upon President Abbas to stop all in11 citement by Palestinian officials and by Palestinian 

12 media, to strongly and unequivocally demand an end 

13 to the violence, and to take all steps necessary to 

14 halt these attacks; 

15 (9) expresses support and admiration for indi16 viduals and organizations working to encourage co17 operation between Israelis and Palestinians; 

18 (10) encourages President Abbas to continue 

19 strengthening and maintaining security cooperation 

20 with Israel; 

21 (11) reiterates that Palestinian political goals 

22 will never be achieved through violence; and 

23 (12) calls on all parties to return to the negoti24 ating table immediately and without preconditions, 


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1 as direct discussions remain the best avenue to end2 ing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 

Æ 


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