Rep. Hillary Scholten continues to perpetuate misinformation about Israel/Palestine, along with refusing to acknowledge the decades long Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands

Since the Hamas attacks against Israel earlier this month, the 3rd Congressional Representative, Hillary Scholten, has been very vocal about her unconditional support for the State of Israel. 

The unconditional support for Israel has recently translated into a call for increased military aid to Israel (as if $3.8 Billion a year isn’t enough), as well as another resolution re-affirming the US commitment to Israel. In a GRIID post from last week on the zealous support of Israel by Rep. Scholten, I made it clear that the increased US military aid and the diplomatic alliance with Israel has resulted in thousands of Palestinians deaths, mostly in Gaza. I entitled last week’s post, Rep. Scholten endorses Israeli War Crimes in Gaza. The same continues this week, based on the actions of Rep. Scholten, which I will discuss here.

The first action I want to discuss is based upon a Press Release from Rep. Scholten, dated October 19. In that Press Release, Scholten, along with other members of Congress, urged Egyptian Ambassador to the United States Motaz Zahran to encourage the Egyptian government to help protect innocent civilians in Gaza. Part of the text reads as follows:

In order to protect noncombatants and civilians in Gaza from Hamas’s brutality, we call on the Egyptian government to urgently work with the United States, Israel, and relevant international stakeholders to take all measured and appropriate steps to support and facilitate safe zones in southern Gaza and enable a steady supply of humanitarian assistance to flow from Egypt towards those in the safe zones until the civilian population is able to return to the north of the Strip.

First, it must be stated that Hamas does not make it a practice to brutalize other Palestinians, especially in Gaza. Rep. Scholten provides no evidence of “Hamas’s brutality,” nor does she provide any sources to support this claim. The other major problem with this Press Release is the fact that nowhere does it acknowledge the decades-long Israeli occupation of Gaza, the ongoing brutality by the Israelis against those living in Gaza – See Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappe’s book, Gaza in Crisis: Reflections on the US-Israeli War Against the Palestinians or the numerous reports by the Israeli Human Rights group, BTselem. This decades long Israeli brutality against those living in Gaza, along with the current Israeli bombing and the demand that the Palestinians living in Gaza must leave are the real reasons why Palestinian civilians living in Gaza are at risk. Also, it must be said that the longstanding Israeli occupation and the ongoing Israeli brutality against those living in Gaza could only happen with US government consent and complicity in those crimes. 

In Rep. Scholten’s weekly newsletter for October 23rd, she devotes a fair amount to what the Congresswoman refers to as, “the Israel-Hamas war.” Hamas is not a nation, so they cannot be at war with the State of Israel. More importantly, Rep. Scholten continues to NOT acknowledge the decades-long Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands, which includes Gaza and the ongoing Israeli assaults on Gaza.

Rep. Scholten then goes on to say, “at the heart of what drives my foreign policy–is our desire for lasting peace.” This is a nice sentiment, but there can never be real or lasting peace between Israel and Palestine, especially when the US is complicit with the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands, the massive amounts of US military aid to Israel, and the US complicity in the expansion of Israeli Settlements – which includes the bulldozing of Palestinian homes and the occupation of additional Palestinian lands. For Rep. Scholten to say she wants lasting peace, while simultaneously agreeing to send more military aid to Israel is flat out hypocrisy.

Lastly, Rep. Scholten mentions on her Facebook page for October 23rd, “I joined over 100 of my Democratic colleagues in thanking the Biden admin. for its strong response to the crisis and urging POTUS to provide continued aid to Gaza.” As I pointed out yesterday with Senator Gary Peters, when the US provides only a few million in humanitarian aid to those fleeing Gaza, while simultaneously planning on sending $14 billion in Military Aid to Israel – which will be used to brutalize more Palestinians – one can see the deception in supposed US concern over the fleeing Palestinians.

In a recent article on the site Electronic Intifada, we see a more robust argument and analysis for the so-called humanitarian aid for the US in an article entitled, Biden’s Gaza “aid” plan a fig leaf for genocide. The article states: 

Even if aid does start trickling in from Egypt, this would not be much more than a public relations exercise. It would not significantly alleviate the enormous harm and suffering that Israel is deliberately inflicting on the civilian population as collective punishment. 

The 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza are without water, food, fuel and medicine – life essentials – because Israel has deliberately cut them off. This a crime against humanity of the highest order against people the Israeli government has labeled “human animals.”

Unfortunately, this is not the sort of astute and passionate analysis coming from Michigan’s 3rd Congressional Representative, even though this is what we demand.