In a statement released Monday, Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN-04) called on Israel to “end its military occupation” of Palestinian lands. McCollum said she was “standing in solidarity with the Palestinian people.”
Today is @UN International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. I will keep working to achieve peace, security, and a future of hope & opportunity for all Palestinians.
My Statement for the Congressional Record on #PalestineDay: https://t.co/CXytI3Rpa1 pic.twitter.com/j4FgNyjO0K
— Rep. Betty McCollum (@BettyMcCollum04) November 29, 2021
McCollum said “the State of Israel” needs to end it’s “illegal settlement expansion and annexation of Palestinian lands, and end it’s blockade of Gaza.” She also asked the United States government to “end the policies that maintain the status quo, allowing for passive acquiescence to Israel’s systematical designed and executed actions to deny the Palestinian people a future in their own homeland.”
She asked that the Biden Administration and other leaders in the international community hold “all state and non-state actors” in the Palestine conflict accountable to “internationally recognized standards.”
The statement was in observance of the United Nations International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. McCollum said she “will keep working to achieve peace, security, and a future of hope [and] opportunity for all Palestinians.”
McCollum wrote that the world is reflecting on “the condition of the Palestinian people who struggle under a brutal miliatry occupation.” She went on to explain how Palestinians “barely survive under a cruel blockade, exist as second-class citizens inside Israel, and live in exile far from their homeland.”
Her statement went on to say that “fundamental human rights” have been “systematically denied” to the Palestinian people “for eight decades.” McCollum wrote, “The international community has a moral obligation, and I personally feel this obligation, to stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine – defending their human rights, promoting their right to self-determination, and working tirelessly for a path toward justice, equality, and freedom for all Palestinians.”
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Hayley Feland is a reporter with The Minnesota Sun and The Wisconsin Daily Star | Star News Network. Follow Hayley on Twitter or like her Facebook page. Send news tips to [email protected].
