Reaffirming the State of Israel's right to exist, condemning antisemitism in all forms, and rejecting false equivalencies between democracies and terrorist organizations.

Bill: 118-hres-849
Sponsor: full_name: Rep. Buck, Ken [R-CO-4]
Introduced: 2023-11-07
Policy area: International Affairs
Latest action: action_date: 2023-11-07
text: Referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Summaries:
action_date: 2023-11-07
action_desc: Introduced in House
text: <p>This resolution reaffirms Israel's right to exist and condemns anti-Semitism. It also condemns the violence perpetrated by Hamas on October 7, 2023, rejects moral equivalence between Israel and Hamas, and demands the safe return of all hostages taken by Hamas.</p>

tv_txt: IV 118th CONGRESS 1st Session H. RES. 849 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES November 7, 2023 Mr. Buck submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs RESOLUTION Reaffirming the State of Israel’s right to exist, condemning antisemitism in all forms, and rejecting false equivalencies between democracies and terrorist organizations.

Whereas the United States has been a friend to the State of Israel since its inception in 1948; Whereas Israel has been a friend and ally to the United States in the Middle East, especially in the Global War on Terror; Whereas the Jewish State was formed from necessity after millennia of pogroms, persecutions, and a Holocaust; Whereas Members of this body have trafficked antisemitic tropes, created and propagated false narratives, and expressed false equivalencies between the Israeli Government and the terrorists attacking them; Whereas Hamas attacked the sovereign country of Israel on October 7, 2023, slaughtering innocent civilians, including women and children; Whereas Hamas captured hundreds of civilians in the October 7 attack, including United States civilians, and seeks to use those hostages as human shields in their war with the Israeli military; and Whereas antisemitic hate crimes have increased since October 7: Now, therefore, be it

That the House of Representatives— (1) reaffirms the right of Israel to exist and defend her citizens against terrorist organizations and their state backers; (2) condemns the violence perpetrated by Hamas on October 7 and rejects the notion that such violence can be justified by political concerns; (3) rejects any moral equivalence between the Israeli Government and the Hamas regime that starves its citizens, abuses its population, and uses them as human shields; (4) demands the safe return of all hostages taken by Hamas in the October 7 atrocity; (5) rejects the false narrative that Israeli forces targeted Al-Ahli Arab Hospital on October 17, 2023; (6) rejects the false narrative that United States security assistance to Israel in any way contributed to the October 7 atrocities; (7) condemns the phrase from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free as an expression of support for genocide, murder, and ethnic cleansing; and (8) rejects the idea that phrasing centering on the destruction and violent expulsion of Jews from their ancestral homeland is anything other than ethnic cleansing.