Political Quotes

“Peter Beinart said: ``When you tell a people to forget its past, you are not proposing peace, you are proposing extinction.'' I introduced a resolution yesterday recognizing the 77 years of the ongoing Nakba against the Palestinian people and the need for refugee rights. We know that thousands of Palestinians were ethnically cleansed in 1948, and nearly 800,000 were violently removed from over 400 villages, completely erased. Many of them carry their keys to this day, Mr. Speaker, hanging them on the wall of their new, temporary homes in hopes that one day they will be able to return to their villages. We acknowledge their trauma and the painful loss of their connections to their family members, land, the beautiful olive groves, and the 400 Palestinian villages that they all grew up in. We, of course, see that the Israeli Government continues to illegally steal Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank where my family lives. They illegally evict Palestinian families, Mr. Speaker, demolish homes, and deny Palestinians basic human rights. We honor those all around the world and want them to know that former Congresswoman Cori Bush and I see them. We know the suffering. We know that there are lasting harms of settler colonialism, as well as ethnic cleansing and apartheid. There are days that I feel so alone in this Chamber as the only Palestinian American serving in Congress.”