Kamlager-Dove Remarks on Need for Sustainable Peace Between Israelis and Palestinians
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - November 9, 2023
Media Contact: Maya Valentine | maya.valentine@mail.house.gov
WASHINGTON, DC – In the first House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Israel since the October 7th terrorist attacks, Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove (CA-37) discussed the need to forge a sustainable peace for Israelis and Palestinians and to finally put serious U.S. diplomatic might behind a long-term political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Below is a link to the video of her open remarks and a transcript of her exchange with the Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, Barbara Leaf:
To watch her opening remarks, click here.
To watch the full Committee hearing, click here.
Kamlager-Dove: “So I'll just say many of my Jewish constituents have loved ones in Israel who were impacted by the Hamas terrorist attacks on October 7th, and the trauma lives on with the missing hostages held in Gaza, including my constituent's grand-niece, three-year-old Abigail, whose parents were killed by Hamas before she was kidnapped.
“Jewish and Israeli Americans have come together with Muslim and Palestinian Americans to deplore the terror and violence that innocent Palestinians are enduring in Gaza, and we are seeing an appalling rise in antisemitism and Islamophobia in my District and beyond. No one feels safe. I want peace. I think we all want peace. I hope we all believe that all people have the right to live with dignity, self-determination, without fear of extinction. What is abundantly clear to me is that after decades of negligence, now is the time for the United States and the international community to put our diplomatic might behind a sustainable long-term political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel's security depends on it, Palestinians' humanity depends on it, and the liberal international order may suffer a fatal blow without it. I think one way to decapitate Hamas is to give the Palestinians another option. So Secretary Leaf, how is the [Biden] Administration signaling that a two-state solution is the only kind of end that the United States will accept to this conflict?”
Leaf: “Congresswoman, you have really nicely summed up exactly where the [Biden] Administration is, that there is urgency to doing exactly that, pointing the way, but more than pointing the way, building the pathway to a negotiated Palestinian state. And Secretary Blinken has been signaling that privately and publicly over this last period, he was quite to the point on this with both the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and with all of our Arab partners, and with our Israeli partners, frankly, because this is sort of the missing element at the heart of the story, the unresolved quest for statehood by the Palestinians."
“And another thing that you, you put your finger on which I found very much mirrored in Israel, in the West Bank: Israeli Jews are afraid of Israeli Arabs, Israeli Arabs are afraid of Jews – Israeli Jews, Palestinians are afraid of Israelis, and Israelis are certainly terrified of Palestinians. There is a heightened state of fear and anxiety there among all the communities, which I, you know, as you said, is reflected here in our own country. And the way that we begin to pull people back from that state of anxiety and mistrust of the other is precisely by going to the heart of the matter and helping the Palestinians in their quest for statehood."
Kamlager-Dove: “So do you have any concern that this war will grow more hardliners on both sides?
Leaf: "Absolutely. Absolutely."
Kamlager-Dove: "And how do we prevent that?”
Leaf: “Getting the conflict to an end as rapidly as possible, and making sure that Hamas is driven out of business. And I would just say that the Secretary [of State Antony Blinken] has a sort of turn of phrase about this, he said you, you cannot completely – you can destroy a military capability, terrorist organization, but you can't kill an idea, except with a better idea. And that's Palestinian statehood.”
Kamlager-Dove: “So we talked about, you know, getting rid of the Taliban from Afghanistan. That has not happened. So we talk about, we have to completely destroy Hamas. How does that happen? Because like you said, you cannot destroy ideas.”
Leaf: “It's a political process. It's a political, it's a political issue at the heart of it, which is the unresolved quest for statehood. And that is something that we can lead on and will lead on.”
Kamlager-Dove: “Can you have success without diplomacy?”
Leaf: “No, it is absolutely critical to do it diplomatically.”
Kamlager-Dove: “How are we working – given [Prime Minister] Netanyahu has stalled or rejected the U.S. call for a humanitarian pause - does this remain a priority for us? And how do we move the needle with Israel on this?”
Leaf: “We are working relentlessly on the issue of humanitarian pause.”
Kamlager-Dove: “Last question, I know that the Palestinians were told to evacuate to the south from the north, and then they also have concerns about permanent displacement. So how do we still move innocent Palestinians to safety so that we can minimize the casualties of innocent Palestinians?”
Leaf: “We have been crystal clear on the issue of displacement, that we will not - that we will oppose any displacement, any population transfer of Palestinians outside Gaza full stop. The question of getting Palestinian communities out of harm's way within Gaza is another question. And that is something that we have really urged the Israelis, the IDF, to look to with care and attention, but we will oppose any displacement of the Palestinians outside their own territory.”
Kamlager-Dove: “Thank you for your responses. I yield back, Mr. Chair.”
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