Eighty-three congressional Democrats have sent a letter Secretary of State Antony Blinken calling on the Biden administration to stop Israel from displacing Palestinians from the Masafer Yatta villages of the West Bank.
“Evicting Palestinian people from their homes is inconsistent with international humanitarian law, according to Articles 49 and 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and inconsistent with efforts to reach a two-state solution,” reads the letter. “We respectfully request that you immediately engage with the Israeli government to prevent these evictions and further military training exercises in the area. We further ask that you encourage the Israeli government to approve master plans for the villages in Masafer Yatta so that these Palestinian communities may build and maintain homes, schools, infrastructure, and sustain their agricultural and pastoral lands.”
“These evictions undermine our shared democratic values, disregard Palestinian human and civil rights, imperil Israel’s security and prospects for peace,” tweeted Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM), who co-led the letter with Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), “As supporters of a strong U.S.-Israel relationship we ask the Administration to urgently engage.”
House signatories include Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), Ro Khanna (D-CA), Betty McCollum (D-MN) Jim McGovern (D-MA), Marie Newman (D-IL), and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA). Senate signatories include Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Ed Markey (D-MA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Raphael Warnock (D-GA), and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).
Roughly 1,000 Palestinians are set to be forcibly displaced from Masafer Yatta in the southern West bank where the land is scheduled to be repurposed by Israel for military use. The fate of the villages has been wrapped up in a legal battle for over twenty years, but earlier this month Israel’s high court ruled that people living in the area are not permanent residents. The government based its argument on a book that the Israeli anthropologist Yaakov Havakook wrote about the area, but Havakook has told +972 Magazine that his work is being misinterpreted. He tried to submit an opinion against the expulsions twenty years ago, but he worked for the Defense Ministry at the time and they blocked him from doing so. The Israeli government claims that there were not permanent Palestinian residents in the area Israel declared it a firing zone in the 1980s, despite the fact that there are numerous Palestinian testimonies that predate Israel’s 1967 occupation of the West Bank.
President Biden is expected to visit Israel next month.
A full list of the letter’s signatories can be found below:
Representatives Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.-04), Donald Beyer (D-Va.-04), Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.-03), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.-16), Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.-24), Joaquin Castro (D-Texas-20), Judy Chu (D-Calif.-32), Katherine Clark (D-Mass.-05), Gerald Connolly (D-Va.-11), Danny Davis (D-Ill.-07), Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.-04), Pete DeFazio (D-Ore.-04), Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.-03), Mark DeSaulnier (D-Calif.-11), Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.-12), Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas-35), Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.-18), Dwight Evans (D-Pa.-03), Bill Foster (D-Ill.-14), Al Green (D-Texas-09), Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.-03), Jahana Hayes (D-Conn.-05), Jared Huffman (D-Calif.-02), Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.-53), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.-07), Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas-30), Hank Johnson (D-Georgia-04), Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio-09), Ro Khanna (D-Calif-17), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.-08), Ann Kuster (D-N.H.-02), Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.-03), Andy Levin (D-Mich.-09), Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.-19), Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.-47), Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.-08), Betty McCollum (D-Minn.-04), Jim McGovern (D-Mass.-02), Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.-09), Seth Moulton (D-Mass.-06), Marie Newman (D-Ill.-03), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), Donald Payne Jr. (D-N.J.-10), Chellie Pingree (D-Maine-01), Mark Pocan (D-Wisc.-02), Katie Porter (D-Calif.-45), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.-07), David Price (D-N.C.-04), Jamie Raskin (D-Md.-08), Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.-40), Bobby Rush (D-Ill.-01), Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.-09), Jackie Speier (D-Calif.-14), Mark Takano (D-Calif.-41), Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.-20), Nydia Velásquez (N.Y.-07), Maxine Waters (D-Calif.-43), Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.-12), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Jennifer Wexton (D-Va.-10), John Yarmuth (D-Ky.-03).
Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-Ore.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Tom Carper (D-Del.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Angus King (I-Maine), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawai’i), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
Thank you for publishing this list of the members of Congress who understand what America is supposed to stand for.
Hopefully they will inspire other members who are still being coerced by fear into ignoring their conscience and their duty.
“Forced displacement” on the basis of ethnicity or religion is what I would call Ethnic Cleansing.
An interesting background to this story can be found at :https://www.972mag.com/anthropologist-masafer-yatta-firing-zone/. Apparently the author pf the study used by the Israeli kangaroo court disputed the findings of the court and states it is based upon the lie that the area was uninhabited before the IDF named it a “firing zone”. And the author and anthropologist was forbidden by the Defense establishment from testifying or at least offering an affidavit to that fact to the Israeli court. Which also begs the question as to whether or not the court system can subpoena a necessary witness. As I would repeat, this is truly a kangaroo court..
America is at a cross roads.