SR0122 97TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SR0122 LRB097 11233 KXB 53118 r

SENATE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, On March 11, 2011, in the Israeli town of Itamar, five members of the Fogel family were brutally stabbed to death in their home: Father Udi, Mother Ruth, eleven-year old Yoav, four-year-old Elad, and 3-month-old Hadas; three of the Fogel's other children survived the attacks to see their parents and siblings murdered; and

WHEREAS, The al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, a militant political faction of the Fatah party, which is a member of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, claims responsibility for the attacks; Fatah's leader, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, has denounced the attacks internationally as "despicable, immoral, and inhuman"; and

WHEREAS, Despite public condemnation of the attacks, the Palestinian government has done little to end the rhetoric of anti-Semitism prevalent among political youth movements such as the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade; and

WHEREAS, Two days after the horrific attack on the Fogel family, in a ceremony attended by Fatah leaders, the town of Al-Bireh renamed their town square in honor of Dalal Mughrabi, considered a martyr in Palestine for her role in organizing the 1978 bus hijacking in which 35 Israelis and 10 of the Palestinian hijackers, including herself, were killed; and

WHEREAS, The renaming of a public square after Mughrabi, a Palestinian militant who is reviled as a terrorist in Israel, so soon after the Israeli national tragedy provoked an uproar throughout the international Jewish community and imperils the tenuous relationship between the two countries further; and

WHEREAS, The White House has issued a statement condemning the terrorist attacks in Itamar and calling for the Palestinian Authority to hold the perpetrators accountable; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-SEVENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we condemn the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade for the Itamar murders of an innocent man and woman and of innocent children in an act of terrorism; and be it further

RESOLVED, We ask the Palestinian Authority to use every possible means available to bring the Fogels' killers to justice; and be it further

RESOLVED, We denounce the naming of the public square at Al-Bireh in honor of Dalal Mughrabi as a glorification of violence against the Israeli people; and be it further

RESOLVED, We ask the United States Congress and the President of the United States to condemn the naming of the Dalal Mughrabi public square as an anti-Semitic act; and be it further

RESOLVED, That we urge Israeli and Palestinian leaders to come together in the wake of these unspeakable crimes and find a meaningful compromise to end bloodshed in the region; and be it further

RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be delivered to the President of the United States, the Majority and Minority Leaders of the United Senate, the Speaker and Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives, the Consulate General of Israel, and the Consulate General of Egypt.