Protest of House vote against the UN Goldstone Gaza Report: Protesters will hold a “Read-In” of the 575-page Report |
CONTACT: What: Protest of House vote against the UN
Goldstone Gaza Report On Tuesday, November 3,
2009, the US House of Representatives will vote on House Resolution 867, which calls on the “President and the Secretary
of State to oppose unequivocally any endorsement or further consideration of
the `Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict' in
multilateral fora." At 10 am on Tuesday,
November 3, 2009, members of the coalition for the Free Gaza March will occupy
the office (Rayburn 2221) of Congressman Howard Berman, chair of the House of
Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, and read publicly the 575-page
Goldstone Report. They will continue to occupy the office until they get a
response from Cong. Berman on their request that Congress delay the vote until
Judge Goldstein has had a chance to testify at a Congressional hearing. “We doubt that Cong.
Berman or the other members have even read the
meticulously-documented report that they are so anxious to criticize, or
have read Judge Goldstone's line-by-line refutation of their resolution,” said
Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CODEPINK: Women for Peace who has been to Gaza
three times this year. “The least they could do it delay the vote until they
hear directly from Retired US Army Reserve
Colonel Ann Wright, who has also been to Gaza three times this year, commented:
“I have seen the destruction caused by the Israeli 22 day attack on Gaza that
killed 1,440, wounded 5,000 and made 50,000 homeless. This proposed resolution
by Representatives Berman and Ros-Lehtinen continues the US Congress' blind
protection for the continuing criminal acts committed by the Israeli government
toward the Palestinians and only exacerbates the tensions between most of the
countries of the world and the United States.” Michael Ratner, President
of the Center for Constitutional Rights, said “For Congress to pass this
resolution without a hearing where Judge Goldstone can testify and based upon a
Resolution rife with factual errors makes a mockery of assertions by the United
States that fundamental protections of human rights laws law apply equally to
all. It leaves the United States, and especially Congress, without a thread of
moral authority.” Ratner, Benjamin and
Wright will join over 700 international activists in Gaza on December 31, 2009
for the Gaza Freedom March with an estimated 50,000 citizens of Gaza. ### |
