Today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be honored for the fourth time with a speech before a joint session of Congress. Billed as a symbolic representation of the U.S.-Israeli relationship, it will serve instead to Palestinians like myself and many others as a shameful reminder of how the United States government has betrayed its own stated values and commitment to human rights for all people.
Today in Gaza, Palestinians have no right to life or safety. It has become a land of orphans, of widows and of mass graves. Nearly 40,000 people have been killed, including over 16,000 children, by what President Biden described as Israel’s “indiscriminate bombing.”
Nearly the entire population has been driven from their homes and much of Gaza has been made unlivable. The International Court of Justice and a U.S. federal court have ruled that Israel might be guilty of genocide, and the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has requested a warrant for Netanyahu’s arrest for using starvation as a weapon of war against the whole population of Gaza, deliberately targeting civilians, and “extermination and/or murder.”
The United States is not a spectator in all this destruction, but in fact its main enabler. Since October, Biden has signed legislation appropriating billions of dollars in weapons to Israel, and continues to send weapons even after Israel crossed his “red line” of invading Rafah. At the United Nations, the Biden administration repeatedly used its Security Council veto authority to block ceasefire resolutions for months, and the House of Representatives passed legislation to inflict harsh sanctions against the ICC after Chief Prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan announced his arrest proceedings against Netanyahu.
For decades Netanyahu has worked to undermine U.S. policy in the region by destroying the possibility of a Palestinian state being created as part of a two-state solution, flouting U.S. policy on settlements, and systematically denying Palestinians our basic human rights, creating the conditions for today’s horrific violence. Before people in Gaza faced Israel’s endless wave of bombs and missiles, they lived under a crippling Israeli blockade and siege for 17 years, unable to travel outside of the tiny strip’s borders or access any items not allowed through Israel’s strict and arbitrary screenings.
In the West Bank, where I live, Israel has launched a massive wave of repression in recent months while the world is focused on Gaza. More than 500 people have been killed since October and more than 7,000 others imprisoned by Israel’s occupying army. At any point Israeli soldiers can enter my home in Ramallah or any other home in the West Bank, and arrest and imprison us indefinitely without charge or trial. Reported use of torture by Israel has been frequent for decades and has become more so in the last nine months.
If it were not enough for our life and liberty to be denied, Israel continues to steal our land and destroy our homes as well. In Gaza, almost 2 million people have been violently displaced, many multiple time. According to the United Nations, more than 70 percent of homes in Gaza were destroyed as of March; rebuilding all the homes could take 80 years. It is unfathomable destruction, on a scale the world has barely seen before.
In the West Bank, Netanyahu’s government has continued to expand settlements relentlessly and recently approved the largest seizure of Palestinian land, more than 3,100 acres, in over 30 years. To add insult to injury, the Israeli Knesset just passed a resolution rejecting Palestinian people’s right to have a state of their own.
When Netanyahu is honored this week by members of Congress, they will be honoring a man who is responsible for grave war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank and who has worked for decades to undermine and sabotage U.S. policy.
While many members of Congress and President Biden continue to support Netanyahu and Israel unconditionally, most Americans do not. Polls show that a majority of Americans want the U.S. to be neutral when it comes to Israel and the Palestinians. Some 70 percent support a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, and a majority support halting weapons to Israel. A majority of Democrats and more than a third of all Americans also believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
Etched into the Capitol building where Netanyahu will speak is this quote from President Franklin Delano Roosevelt: “We defend and we build a way of life, not for America alone, but for all mankind.” This promise has not yet been extended to many peoples, including the Palestinians. Yet, even in this time of horror and grief, I continue the hope that what has been for decades will not be so eternally into the future.
It is not too late for members of Congress to send a message to Netanyahu and to the rest of the world that they value the lives and human rights of all peoples, including Palestinians, by boycotting his speech. In doing so, they will be taking a courageous moral stance and standing on the right side of history.
Dr. Mustafa Barghouti is a physician and general secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative.