February 2010 Legislation and Developments Regarding U.S. Policy Toward Palestine

CONGRESSIONAL LETTERS CIRCULATED AND SUBMITTED IN FEBRUARY

On February 24, Representative Ron Klein (D-FL) sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urging her to work to prevent the United Nations General Assembly from referring the Goldstone Report to the UN Security Council and, ultimately, to the International Court of Justice. In the letter, Congressman Klein claims that the Goldstone Report, which was commissioned by the United Nations Human Rights Council after Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip in the winter of 2008-2009 in order to investigate charges of possible war crimes committed by both the Israeli military and Hamas, is “biased and dangerous.” The letter earned the signatures of 95 members of the House of Representatives.

FEBRUARY CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION TO THE MIDDLE EAST 

On February 12, five members of Congress departed on a J Street-sponsored congressional delegation to the Middle East. According to a press release issued ahead of the delegation’s departure, the purpose of the visit was to expose policymakers to the complexities on the ground, to divergent opinions and to first-hand controversy, all in an effort to “deepen the conversation in Congress about American policy in the Middle East.” To those ends, the participants met with Israeli government and opposition leaders, including Tzipi Livni, Palestinian Authority officials, such as Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, and key regional leaders, including King Abdullah II of Jordan. They also met with members of civil society, including Israeli settlers, Palestinian refugees and Israeli and Palestinian human rights activists in Israel, the Palestinian territories and Jordan.

The members of Congress who took part in this delegation are William Delahunt (D-MA), Donald Payne (D-NJ), Lois Capps (D-CA), Bob Filner (D-CA) and Mary Jo Kilroy (D-OH).