Latest news with #FriendsCommitteeonNationalLegislation
The Hill
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Hill
Clark becomes highest-ranking Democrat to accuse Israel of ‘genocide' in Gaza
House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.), the number two House Democrat, called Israel's actions in Gaza a 'genocide' in remarks earlier this week. 'We each have to continue to have an open heart about how we do this, how we do it effectively, and how we take action in time to make a difference, whether that is stopping the starvation and genocide and destruction of Gaza, or whether that means we are working together to stop the redistricting that is going on, taking away the vote from people in order to retain power,' Clark said during a Thursday event in her district hosted by Friends Committee on National Legislation. Clark is now the highest-ranking House Democrat to use the term 'genocide' to describe the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza. She joins other lawmakers, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), who have said the same. The Hill reached out to Clark's office for comment. During the Thursday event, constituents questioned the Massachusetts Democrat over her acceptance of $371,187 from the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), as shown in a video posted by a reporter at The Greyzone News. 'In the past, I have taken AIPAC money, but again, that is not saying you're not going to do what is right here,' she answered. 'I understand that for some of you that's a red line.' Criticism in recent months has mounted against Israel and Prime Minister Netanyahu over its war in Gaza. This week, Netanyahu said he has no choice but to ' finish the job ' in Gaza. During the 22-month war, which began after Hamas attacked Israel in 2023, the death toll has risen to over 60,000 people, and the enclave is experiencing mass starvation according to U.N. sources, which Netanyahu denies. Netanyahu has floated the relocation of Palestinians as the Middle Eastern country has been in talks with South Sudan about taking in people. 'I think that the right thing to do, even according to the laws of war as I know them, is to allow the population to leave, and then you go in with all your might against the enemy who remains there,' Netanyahu said in an interview with i24, and Israeli TV station last week.
Politico
3 days ago
- Politics
- Politico
Katherine Clark, No. 2 House Democrat, says something must be done to stop ‘genocide' in Gaza
House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) arrives for a press conference outside the U.S. Capitol July 23, 2025. | Francis Chung/POLITICO By Kelly Garrity 08/15/2025 02:40 PM EDT Democratic Whip Katherine Clark appeared to refer to Israel's offensive in Gaza as a 'genocide' during a forum Thursday, according to video of the event viewed by POLITICO. Clark called on those in the audience to 'take action in time to make a difference, … whether that is stopping the starvation and genocide and destruction of Gaza, or whether that means we are working together to stop the redistricting that is going on, taking away the vote from people in order to retain power,' she said at the forum, which was organized by the Friends Committee on National Legislation, a nonpartisan Quaker organization. Democrats across the ideological spectrum have increasingly been critical of Israel's tactics in recent weeks, amid warnings from international aid groups of famine and reports of a rising death toll in Gaza. In a statement posted on X last month, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries wrote that the 'humanitarian crisis in Gaza has reached a breaking point' during President Donald Trump's first six months in office.
Yahoo
10-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
More Than 100 Groups Slam Trump Over Plan To Ethnically Cleanse Gaza
More than 100 organizations in the U.S. have condemned President Donald Trump over his plan to take control of war-torn Gaza and permanently expel Palestinians who have called the territory home for generations. The diverse array of organizations signed on to a letter released Monday by A New Policy and the Friends Committee on National Legislation, accusing the Trump administration of promoting what the international community qualifies as ethnic cleansing. The signatories range from faith-based groups, to foreign policy and national security organizations, and political advocacy groups. 'Forcible displacement, when carried out with an intent to permanently remove a people from a land on the basis of their identity is ethnic cleansing,' the letter stated, citing Article 49(1) of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which the U.S. and Israel are both parties to. Since taking office last month, Trump has regularly commented on what Gaza's future should look like now that Israel and Hamas have agreed to a ceasefire ― a fragile deal that comes after the Israeli military spent 15 months destroying Gaza and its people, in what human rights groups, United Nations experts and even a U.S. federal judge have found to have met the qualifications of genocide. 'Palestine is not just an idea – it is a place. It is a homeland to the Palestinian people,' the letter read, including concern over Israel's ongoing attacks in the occupied West Bank. 'To participate in, facilitate, or endorse their removal from it would violate every precept of international law, devastate the rules-based international order that protects us all, do irreversible harm to America's global influence, and be an act of unconscionable immorality.' Ahead of the letter's release, HuffPost spoke exclusively with leaders of the two groups that authored it. The president has repeatedly said that Palestinians should be removed from Gaza because the territory is currently uninhabitable, declining to acknowledge that the reason for its current state is because the U.S. supported Israel financially and diplomatically in its military campaign. 'We have to recognize, first of all, the massive hypocrisy in saying that Gaza is unlivable, and therefore the Palestinians cannot live there, when it is U.S. weapons and Israel's actions that made it unlivable in the first place ― in the case of Israel's actions, at least, with an intent of doing so,' said Josh Paul, co-founder of A New Policy who resigned from the Biden administration over its Gaza policy. Last week, Trump said that the U.S. should take ownership of Gaza and turn it into 'the Riviera of the Middle East.' In a startling interview to air Monday with Fox News host Bret Baier, the president admitted that Palestinians would not have a right to return to their homeland under his plan. 'The right to return is a fundamental human right enshrined in international law. No president, no foreign leader, no occupying force has the legal authority to strip Palestinians from their right to exist in their own land. We all have to reject this vision and demand justice for the Palestinian people,' said Tariq Habash, A New Policy's co-founder who was the first Palestinian American to resign from the Biden administration over its Gaza policy. Despite Trump having the support of his far-right allies, including in Israel, the letter's authors are holding on to hope that he may listen to those within his circle and among his voters who oppose his plan to permanently remove Palestinians from Gaza. 'If he decides to move forward on this path, notwithstanding those voices, I think that there will certainly be opportunities for litigation and for public protests and for congressional action and all these sort of things,' Paul said. The letter also expressed support with several Arab countries that released their own joint statement opposing Trump's proposed plan, which included making countries like Jordan and Egypt take in the Palestinians he's forcibly exiled. The president's comments on the right to return came one day before the White House hosts Jordan's King Abdullah II. 'The suffering of millions of Palestinians in Gaza and the U.S.'s unconditional support for Israel throughout is harmful ― not only to millions of Palestinians, but also to Americans, to Israelis, to Arabs throughout the region, to Jews, Christians and Muslims alike,' said FCNL's Odeliya Matter. The several signatories representing different faiths point 'toward this kind of unity as those who sanctify human life, that this proposal made by Trump is absolutely unacceptable and in defiance of our faiths as American citizens,' she continued. 'And I think we've all agreed that the notion of a holy land cannot be abused on the backs of millions of innocent people.'
Yahoo
10-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
More Than 100 Groups Slam Trump Over Plan To Ethnically Cleanse Gaza
More than 100 organizations in the U.S. have condemned President Donald Trump over his plan to take control of war-torn Gaza and permanently expel Palestinians who have called the territory home for generations. The diverse array of organizations signed on to a letter released Monday by A New Policy and the Friends Committee on National Legislation, accusing the Trump administration of promoting what the international community qualifies as ethnic cleansing. The signatories range from faith-based groups, to foreign policy and national security organizations, and political advocacy groups. 'Forcible displacement, when carried out with an intent to permanently remove a people from a land on the basis of their identity is ethnic cleansing,' the letter stated, citing Article 49(1) of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which the U.S. and Israel are both parties to. Since taking office last month, Trump has regularly commented on what Gaza's future should look like now that Israel and Hamas have agreed to a ceasefire ― a fragile deal that comes after the Israeli military spent 15 months destroying Gaza and its people, in what human rights groups, United Nations experts and even a U.S. federal judge have found to have met the qualifications of genocide. 'Palestine is not just an idea – it is a place. It is a homeland to the Palestinian people,' the letter read, including concern over Israel's ongoing attacks in the occupied West Bank. 'To participate in, facilitate, or endorse their removal from it would violate every precept of international law, devastate the rules-based international order that protects us all, do irreversible harm to America's global influence, and be an act of unconscionable immorality.' Ahead of the letter's release, HuffPost spoke exclusively with leaders of the two groups that authored it. The president has repeatedly said that Palestinians should be removed from Gaza because the territory is currently uninhabitable, declining to acknowledge that the reason for its current state is because the U.S. supported Israel financially and diplomatically in its military campaign. 'We have to recognize, first of all, the massive hypocrisy in saying that Gaza is unlivable, and therefore the Palestinians cannot live there, when it is U.S. weapons and Israel's actions that made it unlivable in the first place ― in the case of Israel's actions, at least, with an intent of doing so,' said Josh Paul, co-founder of A New Policy who resigned from the Biden administration over its Gaza policy. Last week, Trump said that the U.S. should take ownership of Gaza and turn it into 'the Riviera of the Middle East.' In a startling interview to air Monday with Fox News host Bret Baier, the president admitted that Palestinians would not have a right to return to their homeland under his plan. 'The right to return is a fundamental human right enshrined in international law. No president, no foreign leader, no occupying force has the legal authority to strip Palestinians from their right to exist in their own land. We all have to reject this vision and demand justice for the Palestinian people,' said Tariq Habash, A New Policy's co-founder who was the first Palestinian American to resign from the Biden administration over its Gaza policy. Despite Trump having the support of his far-right allies, including in Israel, the letter's authors are holding on to hope that he may listen to those within his circle and among his voters who oppose his plan to permanently remove Palestinians from Gaza. 'If he decides to move forward on this path, notwithstanding those voices, I think that there will certainly be opportunities for litigation and for public protests and for congressional action and all these sort of things,' Paul said. The letter also expressed support with several Arab countries that released their own joint statement opposing Trump's proposed plan, which included making countries like Jordan and Egypt take in the Palestinians he's forcibly exiled. The president's comments on the right to return came one day before the White House hosts Jordan's King Abdullah II. 'The suffering of millions of Palestinians in Gaza and the U.S.'s unconditional support for Israel throughout is harmful ― not only to millions of Palestinians, but also to Americans, to Israelis, to Arabs throughout the region, to Jews, Christians and Muslims alike,' said FCNL's Odeliya Matter. The several signatories representing different faiths point 'toward this kind of unity as those who sanctify human life, that this proposal made by Trump is absolutely unacceptable and in defiance of our faiths as American citizens,' she continued. 'And I think we've all agreed that the notion of a holy land cannot be abused on the backs of millions of innocent people.'
