AMID A GROWING chorus of
condemnation of Israeli violence by American lawmakers this week, the House’s
second-highest ranking Democratic, Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer, defended Israel’s
violence against Palestinian protesters and stood by the Trump administration’s
controversial decision to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
“Israel’s in a tough
situation. It’s trying to defend its borders,” Hoyer said in response to a
question from The Intercept at a pen-and-pad session on Tuesday with reporters
on Capitol Hill. “All the world would hope that it would be done so in a
peaceful manner, but when you have a terrorist organization in front of you,
that is historically and continuing to use violence, that makes it very tough.”
Hoyer, the minority whip, was
referring to a threat he claimed Israel faces from Hamas. But it was
unarmed civilian protesters, not militants, who Israeli soldiers targeted on
Monday, killing at least 58 people and injuring 2,771 others, according to the
Palestinian Health Ministry. The protests in Gaza were in part responding to
the opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, but were more broadly part of a
six-week protest called the “Great March of Return,” in which Gazans demanded
the right to return to the homes they were evicted from 70 years ago.
Since the inception of the
protests — which led up to Nakba day on May 15 (the day
Palestinians observe as the start of their “catastrophe” of displacement)
— the Israeli government has sought to portray them as being organized by
Hamas. The movement’s grassroots organizers have vehemently disputed the
claim. “The Israeli government’s allegations that Hamas organized these
protests are lies, and are defamatory statements that have no basis in
reality,” Nabeel Diab, one of the organizers, told
Mondoweiss. “This march is the embodiment of popular action involving
children, women, and involving all the Palestinians that refuse to accept the
occupation of our land.”
Hoyer has sided not only with
the Israelis, but also with the Trump administration, which on Monday quashed a
resolution calling for an independent inquiry into the killings in Gaza. On
Tuesday, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said Israel
acted with “restraint” in its response to Palestinian protesters. She walked out of the
room when the Palestinian delegation spoke.
“Hamas has undertaken to use,
to continue to use violence, to continue to use the threat of … going into
Israel, and continue to use human shields — all of which is unfortunate. And
Israel is in a very difficult situation, when probably large numbers of people
want to enter Israel from a place that has been threatening Israel for some
years now,” Hoyer said to The Intercept.
He also offered a
justification for the Trump administration’s decision to move the U.S. Embassy
to Jerusalem and recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
“Jerusalem has been the
capital for a very long period of time. Our moving our embassy didn’t make it
the capital, nor if it wasn’t there, didn’t make it not the capital. It’s been
the capital. And frankly, when delegations go to Israel, they meet with members
of the Knesset in … Jerusalem,” he said. “We meet with the prime minister in
Jerusalem. So I want to dismiss the fact that this was a cause for violence.”
Hoyer also defended the
controversial move when the Trump administration announced it in December.
Though many U.S. presidential candidates have promised to move the U.S. Embassy
to Jerusalem, Trump was the first to follow through. Critics fear that moving
the U.S. Embassy is an effective endorsement of Israeli claims
that the city will be the “undivided” capital of Israel, despite the fact that
300,000 Palestinians, who are deprived of basic civil and human rights, live in
East Jerusalem. Most experts agree that any future Palestinian state would
include East Jerusalem.
Gaza, which has been described
as an “open-air prison,” is a densely populated strip of land that is home to
some 2 million Palestinians, and blockaded from land and sea by Israel and
Egypt. While some Palestinian protesters did try to breach the fence separating
Gaza from Israel during Monday’s protest, human rights monitors on the ground
are adamant that Israel’s use of live ammunition was not justified.
The Israeli human rights
organization B’tselem has called on
the Israeli military to disobey commands to use live ammunition on protesters
who do not pose a threat to Israelis, saying they have an obligation under the
law to disobey illegal orders. Some Palestinian demonstrators threw rocks, lit
tires on fire, and used slingshots, but not a single Israeli soldier was
wounded, let alone put in a situation in which they would be justified
using lethal force.
Hoyer’s defense of Israel also
came despite growing progressive criticism of Israeli human rights abuses. On
Monday, the leaders of the Congressional Progressive Caucus called on Israel
to stop using live ammunition against nonviolent protesters.
We are shocked & dismayed
by the lethal force used by Israeli troops against mostly unarmed protestors
demonstrating in #Gaza.
Netanyahu's government must
show utmost restraint, allow for unfettered medical attention for those who
have been wounded, & ease the 12-year blockade.
Likely 2020 Democratic
presidential contenders like Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Elizabeth Warren,
D-Mass., have
both called on the Israeli military to exercise restraint and stop
killing unarmed protesters. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., went further,
asking the State Department to evaluate its aid to Israel and determine if it
should prohibit military support to certain units. Progressive Democratic
contender for office Randy Bryce called on
Israel to allow Democrats to visit Gaza and “observe its humanitarian crisis.”
Following the killings of
Palestinian protesters on Monday, the 6-million-member-strong MoveOn.org, a
leading progressive organization, issued an unusually strong statement,
condemning the embassy move and demanding that the Israeli military stop using
lethal violence against protesters. It asked “every single Democratic elected
official to” echo these concerns.
Trump's decision to move the
U.S. embassy to Jerusalem is unconscionable. Every single Democratic elected
official needs to use their platform today to speak up for peace.
The grassroots progressive
organization CREDO Mobile, which similarly has
been reticent to talk about the issue to its 3.5 million
members, signal-boosted
statements on its Twitter page, condemning the Israeli military’s
behavior in Gaza.
Hoyer’s importance in the
Democratic Party cannot be understated. He is not only influential in setting
the agenda for House Democrats in Congress, but he plays an outsized role in
vetting potential Democratic candidates for office. Last month, The
Intercept published secretly
recorded audio featuring Hoyer pressuring a progressive candidate to drop
out of a race in Colorado.
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