Congress Should Demand Accountability, Not Roll Out Red Carpet for Israeli President

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 14, 2023

Matan Arad-Neeman
press@ifnotnowmovement.org

In response to Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s planned address to Congress, IfNotNow Political Director Eva Borgwardt said, “We support the principled Members of Congress who choose to skip Herzog’s speech next week. As Israel flagrantly violates international law and U.S. policy, now is not the time to roll out the red carpet for its President. For lawmakers attending the speech, we expect to hear how they intend to leverage the U.S.-Israel relationship to address the ongoing violations and ensure meaningful accountability.”

Herzog’s visit comes as Israel ratchets up its assault on Palestinians in what is amounting to the deadliest year for Palestinians in the West Bank in history. An increasingly violent settler movement has carried out deadly pogroms in Huwara, Turmusayya, and other Palestinian towns in the West Bank as the Israeli military stands by, and even participates. Israel invaded the Palestinian city of Jenin earlier this month, while carrying out airstrikes in the West Bank for the first time in two decades. The concerns transcend the current government: last year the Israeli military killed Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, for which the United States has refused to hold Israel accountable. Against this backdrop, Israel’s Defense Minister outlawed six Palestinian human rights organizations. Throughout, Israel has continued to evade any meaningful accountability from the United States.

Israel’s Basic Law for the Presidency establishes the President as a “representative of the State.” While Herzog has been celebrated by some as a foil to Netanyahu’s extremist government, he has consistently chosen the side of the settlement movement and its far-right alliecelebrated the first night of Hanukkah in the settlement of Hebrons. Just a few months after taking office, he celebrated the first night of Hanukkah in the settlement of Hebron, where settlers and soldiers enact some of the most violent, oppressive apartheid policies on Palestinians on a daily basis. Moreover, he has called for endless dialogue with the members of Netanyahu’s fascist, far-right governing coalition, a process that only temporarily delayed the inevitable march of these destructive policies. On the international stage, he has chastised Jewish groups for boycotting extremist minister Bezalel Smotrich, and ridiculously referred to the decision by Ben & Jerry’s to stop selling its ice cream in Israeli settlements in the West Bank as “a new form of terrorism.”

Borgwardt added, “The emergency in Israel/Palestine requires meaningful international accountability. As Tom Friedman recently wrote in the New York Times, time is up for maintaining the “shared fiction” that Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank is only temporary and Israel “is not practicing some form of apartheid there.” The United States continues to make exceptions for Israel in continuing an annual $4 billion of unconditional military funding and defending Israel in international fora. Condoning Herzog’s visit allows the “shared fiction” to continue, making exceptions for Israel and refusing to hold it to the same standards the U.S. holds for every other country. Whether or not lawmakers skip Herzog’s speech, we expect to hear how they are refusing to treat this moment as “business as usual.” The fate of millions of Palestinians and Israelis depends on it.”

###