FMEP Legislative Round-Up July 12, 2024

Resource

1. Bills, Resolutions
2. Letters
3. Hearings
4. Israel/Palestine in 2024 Elex/Politics
5. Selected Media & Press releases/Statements

New:

  • Netroots Nation Conference (featured panel) 7/12/24: Defending Dissent: Palestine, Freedom of Speech, and the Future of Protest, organized by JustVision — ft. Suhad Babaa (JustVision/moderator), Fadi Abu Shammalah (Just Vision), Sabiya Ahmed (Palestine Legal), Lara Friedman (FMEP), Vincent Warren (Center for Constitutional Rights); Simone Zimmerman (Diaspora Alliance and co-founder of IfNotNow)
  • New episode of FMEP’s Occupied Thoughts podcast, The Assault on the Khalidi Library in Jerusalem, ft. FMEP Fellow Peter Beinart speaking with Columbia Professor Emeritus Rashid Khalidi about how and why Jewish settlers are trying to take over the Khalidi Library in Jerusalem and the history of Israel’s treatment of Palestinian educational institutions. They also reflect on the current war, looking at its impact on Palestinians, on U.S. politics, and the ways in which it is strengthening Hamas.

1. Bills & Resolutions

Press releases 7/10/24 [no bill in Congressional Record as of 7/12/24]: Rubio, Cardin Introduce Resolution Honoring Victims of Terrorist Attacks Against Argentina’s Jewish Community; Cardin, Rubio Resolution Honors Argentina’s Jewish Community, Victims of Terrorist Attacks

(Senate NDAA) S. 4638: Introduced 7/8/24 by Reed (D-RI), the “National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025.” Also see: Press release 7/8/24 — SASC Completes Markup of National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025; Executive Summary; Report; Jewish Insider 7/9/24: Senate defense bill pushes for review of U.S.-Qatar relationship. NOTE: Stay tuned for Israel/Middle East details of this bill in a future edition of the Round-Up.

2. Letters

3. Hearings & Markups

July 9, 2024: The House Committee on Education and the Workforce’s Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions held a hearing entitled, “Confronting Union Antisemitism: Protecting Workers from Big Labor Abuses” (hearing video). Witnesses were: Ilana Kopmar, Staff Attorney, Nassau County Legal Aid Society (statement); William Sussman, Graduate Student, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (statement); Anne Marie Lofaso, Professor of Law, West Virginia University College of Law (statement); and Glenn Taubman, Staff Attorney, National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation (statement). Also see: Rep. Bob Good (R-VA) opening statement; Rep. Good press release – Chair Good Exposes Union Antisemitism and Big Labor Abuses. Also see: Congressional witnesses accuse unions of fostering hostile, antisemitic environments (Jewish Insider 7/10/24); House subcommittee hears testimony about Jew-hatred in labor unions (Jewish News Syndicate 7/9/24). NOTE: The UAW’s federal monitor twice pressured the union to back off its call for Gaza ceasefire, then launched an investigation (Drop Site 7/11/24)

July 10, 2024: The House Foreign Affairs Committee marked-up & passed a list of measures, including a number related to Palestine (mark-up video Part 1, Part 2):

  • HR 8345 (introduced by Baird, R-IN, and having 7 Republican cosponsors, including HFAC chair McCaul, R-TX), “To limit funds to the United Nations and other organizations that provide any status, rights, or privileges beyond observer status to the Palestine Liberation Organization, and for other purposes.” [reminder, from press release: “Current U.S. law prohibits U.S. funding to organizations, such as the UN, which give the PLO full membership or standing as a member state. The NOPE Act updates the existing funding prohibition to organizations that offer the Palestinian Authority or the Palestine Liberation Organization “any status, rights, or privileges beyond observer status.”]. NOTE: based on the recent move by the UN General Assembly, this bill would require the immediate de-funding of the United Nations. Following extensive, shameless grandstanding by committee members in support of Israel and totally disconnected from the events of the past 9 months in Gaza (including members who oppose HR 8345), plus a bit of more moderate commentary by, for example, Castro (D-TX), the bill passed by a mostly party-line vote of 28-18.
  • H. Res. 1323 (introduced by Burchett, R-TN, and having 9 cosponsors, including 2 Democrats – Gottheimer, D-NJ, and Moskowitz, D-FL), “Rejecting the United Nations decision to place the Israel Defense Force on a list of child’s rights abusers.” Passed by a voice vote.
  • HR 7914 (introduced by Sherman, D-CA, and having 23 bipartisan cosponsors), “To require the imposition of sanctions on the Popular Resistance Committees and other associated entities, and for other purposes [aka the “Accountability for Terrorist Perpetrators of October 7th Act”]. Passed by a voice vote.
  • HR 8232 (introduced by Mast, R-FL, and having 4 cosponsors, including 1 Democrat – Gottheimer, D-NJ) “To authorize the Secretary of State to withdraw from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East Federal funds previously made available to such organization.” Passed by a party-line vote of 24-22.  Also see: Foreign Affairs Committee Republicans pass measure to claw back UNRWA funding with no support from Democrats (Jewish Insider 7/12/24)
  • H. Res. 554 (introduced by Slotkin, D-MI, and having 10 bipartisan cosponsors), “Affirming the nature and importance of the support of the United States for the religious and ethnic minority survivors of genocide in Iraq.Passed by a voice vote.
  • H. Res. 1328 (introduced by James, R-MI, and having 2 Democratic cosponsors), “Recognizing the actions of the Rapid Support Forces and allied militias in the Darfur region of Sudan against non-Arab ethnic communities as acts of genocide.” Passed by a voice vote.
  • Also see: Al-Monitor 7/11/24 – US lawmakers advance bill to block new UN rights for Palestine -The House Foreign Affairs Committee also voted on legislation to claw back UNRWA funds and denounce a UN decision to list Israel as an abuser of children’s rights.

July 10, 2024: The Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe held a hearing entitled, “Putin’s Syrian Puppet: War Crimes and Complicity from Syria to Ukraine.” Witnesses were: M. Night Shyamalan, Film Director, Producer, and Screenwriter & Co-Founder and President of The M. Night Shyamalan Foundation; Mohammed Alaa Ghanem, Syrian Civil Society Leader and Human Rights Activist; and Mouaz Moustafa, Executive Director of the Syrian Emergency Task Force. Also see: video.

July 9, 2024: The House Ways and Means Committee held a mark-up of a number of measures that use claims of antisemitism to target US academia (and reported the out of committee:

4. Israel/Palestine in 2024 Politics/Elex

AIPAC & Elex

Other stuff

5. Selected Media & Press releases/Statements

Members of Congress in Israel

Netanyahu on the Hill

Other