Posted on 12/05/24
Outreach to Senator Chris Hollen's office
With our continued focus on identifying the anti-Israel voices that exist within the local and national political discourse, we request that everyone take a few minutes to participate in an outreach campaign to express our frustration with Senator Chris Van Hollen for his anti-Israel rhetoric. (More background provided below.)
Please take one minute (or less) to fill out our ACTION ALERT which will send an email to the Senator’s office… and then take an additional minute to place a call to his office by dialing 202-224-4654 and relaying the following message to his staff:
“Hello, my name is ______ and I am a Maryland resident. I would like to voice my deep dismay regarding Senator Van Hollen’s ongoing negativity towards Israel. He seems to go out of his way to criticize the Jewish State at every opportunity. His statements last week that Israel is “indiscriminately bombing” and committing “ethnic cleansing” are unfounded and appalling. It is outrageous that he struggles to forcefully call out Hamas for the crimes it has committed and continues to commit - to the more than one hundred innocent hostages, including several American citizens, and to its own people. His call for the US to immediately recognize a Palestinian state totally ignores the fact that no organized Palestinian entity has shown any true interest in making peace. Senator Van Hollen’s attitude and positions have become increasingly concerning and have put our community in a truly dangerous and threatened position, and we urge him to conform his views to the realities of the conflict. Thank you.”
Please remember to speak firmly but respectfully.
______________________
Background to this outreach campaign:
Although this is not the first time we are engaging in an outreach campaign to call out the objectionable rhetoric of Maryland’s U.S. Senator, Chris Van Hollen, we felt that the events over the last two weeks warranted this reminder to continue the outreach.
In the wake of his vote on November 20th in support of a motion that would have blocked the sale of critical U.S. weapons to Israel, his appearances on several networks and news shows accusing Israel of engaging in “ethnic cleansing” in Gaza (an extremely harsh and dangerous term for which there is zero evidence), Senator Van Hollen has continued to target Israel by authoring an anti-Israel op-ed this past Monday (12/2). His statement that Israel is violating humanitarian law and his call for the U.S. to grant official recognition to a Palestinian state are dangerous and irresponsible, and our community should not remain silent.