© Larry Marano/WireImageU.S. Representative Alcee L. Hastings speaks at Palace Theater at Kings Point on September 28, 2012 in Tamarac, Florida.
One co-sponsor, Florida Democrat Alcee Hastings, is quoted approvingly by the Israel lobby group AIPAC:
Unless the Palestinian government and leaders around the world unequivocally condemn these acts of terror, there is little chance it will stopThe resolution goes on for 28 pages about Palestinian attacks over the last year and a half. As the head of Peace Now observed. "Cuz you can never go wrong with this stuff: Hastings & [Republican Rob] Woodall intro 28-PAGE resolution condemning Palestinians."
The resolution fails to provide the actual numbers of the so-called intifada of knives: 250 Palestinians killed in that time; and 40 Israelis.
The resolution is grotesque in one regard: It cites several cases in which the alleged attackers were summarily executed by the Israeli Defense Forces. Amnesty International last year prepared a report providing "details of 20 cases of evidently unlawful killings of Palestinians, including 15 possible extrajudicial executions, carried out by Israeli forces," Amnesty International said. "Israeli forces continue to display an appalling disregard for human life by using reckless and unlawful lethal force against Palestinians."
Even Sen. Patrick Leahy has characterized these killings as likely a "gross" violation of human rights.
Several of the killed Palestinians in the Amnesty International report also appear in the House resolution; notably these three:
The killing of 18-year-old Hadeel Hashlamoun at a Hebron checkpoint on September 22, 2015 - famously shown in the photo below,
Hadeel al-Hashlamoun just before she was killed at a checkpoint on Sept. 22, 2015. The bipartisan House resolution on Palestinian incitement calls her a terrorist and fails to say that she was killed in an extrajudicial execution.
an attempted attack on September 22, 2015, when a Palestinian attempted to stab an Israel Defense Forces soldier in Hebron;The killing of Fadi Alloun, 18, as he was walking down a street in Jerusalem, allegedly after an attack, but when he no longer appeared to represent a threat, captured on video:
About which the House says only this:
an attack on October 4, 2015, when a 15 year-old Israeli boy was stabbed by a Palestinian in Jerusalem;Then there is the famous killing of Abel Fatah al-Sharif, 21, as he lay wounded and incapacitated in Hebron last March, a case that resulted in a manslaughter conviction of the Israeli medic who executed al-Sharif -
Abed al-Fatah al-Sharif, 21, on street in Hebron before he was executed
an attack on March 24, 2016, when two Palestinians stabbed an Israel Defense Forces soldier near Hebron;This is worse than blaming the victim. It is simply erasing the victims. And yes, Israeli forces and civilians have been attacked. The point is that the U.S. House cannot grant only one side of the conflict humanity.
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