We reported yesterday on the three Democratic lawmakers who visited the Gaza Strip yesterday, becoming the first government representatives to touch down in the area in more than three years.
Two of the three, Reps. Brian Baird (WA) and Keith Ellison (MN), have released a longer statement on what they saw in Gaza. They make a powerful plea for greater U.S. recognition of the human toll exacted by last month’s outbreak of violence between Gaza and Israel. From Baird and Ellison’s release:
If this had happened in our own country, there would be national outrage and an appeal for urgent assistance. We are glad that the Obama administration acted quickly to send much needed funding for this effort but the arbitrary and unreasonable Israeli limitations on food and repair essentials is unacceptable and indefensible. People, innocent children, women and non-combatants, are going without water, food and sanitation, while the things they so desperately need are sitting in trucks at the border, being denied permission to go in.
The two Democrats will head to the Israeli side of the border today.
