Condemning the global rise of antisemitism and calling upon countries and international bodies to counter antisemitism.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to rise in strong support of H. Res. 1449, a bipartisan House resolution I introduced with my dear friend, Congressman Chris Smith of New Jersey, supporting global efforts to counter anti-Semitism.

It has been an honor to serve alongside Representative Smith as a co- chair of the House Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism.

I thank House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman McCaul and Ranking Member Greg Meeks for their leadership and support in advancing this important measure through committee and to the House floor.

Mr. Speaker, we know that anti-Semitism is on the rise around the world. We know what a threat this is not just to the Jewish community but also to democracies around the world and to the very fabric of our own societies.

Today, not even 80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz, anti- Semitism has grown, taken on new forms, and spread to more parts of the world. As we have seen since the Hamas terrorist attack of October 7, 2023, the single deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust, anti- Semitism around the world has skyrocketed.

That explosion of anti-Semitism started on October 8, long before the IDF went into Gaza. In fact, it started while Hamas terrorists were still in Israel, attacking innocent civilians.

We saw shocking anti-Semitism rear its ugly head in Amsterdam earlier this month, where a violent mob planned a coordinated attack on Jews who attended a soccer match with an Israeli soccer team. It is deeply chilling that this attack happened around the 86th anniversary of Kristallnacht, and as the specter of violence against Jews in Europe rises again. It is equally chilling that the perpetrators of that violence live streamed their atrocities.

Here in the United States, FBI data shows that anti-Jewish hate crimes increased in 2023 by nearly 63 percent from 2022, totaling the highest number recorded in almost three decades. We are talking about violence, destruction, and the murder of Jews in this country simply because they are Jews.

Jewish Americans make up only 2 percent of the U.S. population, yet anti-Semitic hate crimes account for more than 15 percent of all hate crimes reported by the FBI and two-thirds of all religious-based hate crimes.

Even though we face a significant global challenge, we must not despair. We must take action. We must continue to make progress in the fight against anti-Semitism through resolutions like this one.

In 2004, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the OSCE, acknowledged that anti-Semitism assumed new forms and posed a new threat to security and stability in the region.

In 2016, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance built international consensus around a valuable working definition of anti- Semitism.

In recent years, many countries around the world have appointed special envoys or coordinators or advanced national strategies to deal with the rise of hate against Jews.

In 2021, Congress passed--and President Trump signed into law-- bipartisan, bicameral legislation to elevate the position of U.S. Special Envoy to the rank of ambassador.

In 2023, the Biden administration issued the first-ever ``U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism.'' This July, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt unveiled the Global Guidelines for Countering Antisemitism, a new landmark international framework for acting against anti-Semitism, which countries around the world can sign on to and embrace.

I commend my good friend, Ambassador Lipstadt, and her team at the State Department for their excellent work on these guidelines. We now have a multilateral international framework that can provide guidance to other governments and to our own embassies about our shared obligation and responsibility to counter anti-Semitism.

This includes clearly and unequivocally condemning anti-Semitism, providing physical protection and security for Jewish communities, enforcing hate crimes laws, and educating future generations about the Holocaust and the long history of conspiracy theories and hate targeting Jews.

I am pleased that more than 40 countries and international bodies have already endorsed these guidelines, and we are working hard to make sure that more countries in different regions join them in the coming months.

H. Res. 1449 condemns the rise of anti-Semitism in many countries around the world, expresses our support for the global guidelines and other international efforts to counter anti-Semitism, and it calls on more countries around the world to endorse and embrace these guidelines.

I thank our colleagues on both sides of the aisle for their support. What we are doing today is just the start, but we must do more. I deeply appreciate the leadership on both sides of the aisle and the commitment to this issue.

Before coming to Congress, I was fortunate to be involved in efforts to protect Jewish communities around the world for decades. Working together to make real progress in this fight, and on an issue where we can find agreement, has been a real highlight in my career and my time in Congress.

Mr. Speaker, anti-Semitism is wrong. It is dangerous. It deserves to be condemned, countered, and eradicated by all governments around the world. That is the purpose of our bipartisan resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all my colleagues to join me in supporting this bipartisan measure, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume for the purposes of closing.

Mr. Speaker, once again, I thank my dear friend and colleague, Representative Chris Smith, for not just his work, but his passion on this critically important issue and his work for many, many years to combat anti-Semitism. I greatly value our friendship.

Mr. Speaker, throughout history, the persecution, expulsion, torture, and murder of Jews has not just destroyed Jews and their vibrant communities, it has brought decay and destruction to the countries that have committed those atrocities.

Sadly, we are seeing that happen today, even as we see Jews being blamed for their own destruction by their evil perpetrators. We must learn from history.

Mr. Speaker, this resolution condemns the frightening rise of anti- Semitism we are seeing today across the world in civilized communities. This resolution calls on countries around the globe to take specific actions to combat anti-Semitism by endorsing and embracing the landmark Global Guidelines for Countering Anti-Semitism.

Throughout history, as Jews were persecuted and tormented and expelled and murdered, those acts were perpetrated, fermented, and allowed by governments. Today, we have a different scenario because here in the United States, our government is standing firm against anti-Semitism and joining in the fight to combat anti-Semitism.

With these guidelines, we ask countries around the globe, we ask their governments, to join us in combating this horrific rise of anti- Semitism.

Once again, I thank my Republican cosponsor, Chris Smith, for his leadership and for his bipartisan cooperation. I thank all of the leadership and my colleagues on the Foreign Affairs Committee, as well as the leadership in Congress for bringing this resolution so swiftly to the House floor for a vote.

Now, more than ever, the United States and countries around the world must stand strong and must stand together in the fight against anti- Semitism and all forms of hatred. I urge my colleagues to stand up and stand with me in supporting H. Res. 1449.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Michael McCaul, our chairman, for very quickly bringing this important resolution to the floor along with the great support of Gregory Meeks, the ranking member.

I especially thank Kathy Manning for authoring this extraordinarily timely resolution condemning the despicable rise of anti-Semitism around the world and calling on our international organizations and countries to embrace the global guidelines for countering anti- Semitism.

Kathy has done a wonderful job. It has been a privilege to serve with her as co-chair of the House Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Anti- Semitism. This resolution says it all. I thank her for doing it and doing it so well.

I want to make a few points. One, the spiritual cancer of anti- Semitism is metastasizing, not only in our country, but in many countries as well, at a rate that is both shocking and sickening. The evidence of it is everywhere, including in our college campuses and university campuses--and just not Harvard and NYU. In my own State at Rutgers University, I was there when people were camping out, and I was accosted verbally by some people. The hatred was just pouring out of their lips and their eyes. The hatred for Jews is unconscionable.

Of course, one of the most recent horrors, as was pointed out, was the Amsterdam pogrom earlier this month, the horrific mob assault on Israeli soccer fans.

It was repulsive on at least two levels. First, the brutal evil of the attackers themselves, but also the so-called respectable opinion- makers who just said: Oh, they shifted the blame. This is all about anti-immigrant sentiment or prejudice and even Israel.

Natan Sharansky is one of the greatest human rights individuals who has ever lived. I had him testify at two hearings. I tried to visit him and actually was in Perm Camp 35 in the 1980s where the Soviet Union had housed him. Frank Wolf and I went there.

When he got out, he came and testified, and he said: You know, if you don't chronicle the hatred--and that is included in these global guidelines--you can't combat it. It must be defined very clearly, especially by law enforcement, so it is not just brushed off as hooliganism or other kinds of things. You need to define it, and to do so with specificity.

He also talked about the three Ds that we are seeing manifesting vis- a-vis Israel every day of the week, and that is demonization, double standard, delegitimization, those three Ds. He talked about that and said that is a cover for anti-Semitism. Disagree with Knesset all you want or with Netanyahu, but once you lower yourselves into those--we see it at the U.N. every day.

I chaired four hearings this Congress alone, more than three dozen over the years, combating anti-Semitism about how the U.N. is rife-- including the U.N. Human Rights Council--with anti-Semitism. It is just unbelievable how bad it is.

UNRWA is filled, overflowing with Hamas sympathizers and Hamas activists who teach children each day of the week to hate Jews and to kill. Just read the Hamas charter. It says: If you see a Jew behind a rock, kill him or her. That is what is being funded by the U.S. Government and funded--not right this minute--but it has been funded in the recent past. We should never do it again.

Let me also say that the guidelines--and I encourage every Member to read them--are very simple. They parallel the OSCE Conference that was held in 2002 and then the Berlin Conference in 2004. The idea of the conference came out of a hearing I chaired in 2002. I recommended it, and the OSCE took it up. The Bush administration took it up, and that conference had the Berlin Declaration in 2004. Rabbi Baker from the AJC did a masterful job--and a few others, but especially him--in wordsmithing a tremendous action plan. Of course, these global guidelines certainly parallel that--and as mentioned, certainly Ambassador Lipstadt.

Just for the record, I authored that legislation. We got it passed here in a bipartisan way, and it took months, years for the U.S. Senate to take it up. They finally did and the Ambassador at Large of the Special Envoy, Ambassador Lipstadt, is doing a magnificent job.

Silence is not an option. We know it. In the fight against anti- Semitism we need government at all levels to denounce, chronicle, and prosecute where these thoughts matriculate into evil deeds.

We know that if you just stand by idly, you are enabling. You need to call it out. This is a very fine resolution, and I thank Ms. Manning for authoring it. It calls out this anti-Semitism and says stop it.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 1449) condemning the global rise of antisemitism and calling upon countries and international bodies to counter antisemitism.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on this measure.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, 2 weeks ago, coordinated mobs roamed the streets of Amsterdam, attacking Israelis in town for a soccer match, in a chilling, premeditated assault. Dozens of people were injured, and scores were running and hiding in fear.

The anti-Semitic, anti-Israel attack is the latest terrifying development in a global spike in anti-Semitic, anti-Israel vitriol since October 7. We have seen it here in the United States on our college campuses, at local synagogues, and even a few miles from us in the Nation's Capital, where a kosher restaurant had its windows smashed earlier this month.

The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights documented a 400 percent increase in anti-Semitic activity since Hamas' October 7, 2023, assault on

Israel. The European Union also found that 96 percent of Jews encountered anti-Semitism in their daily lives.

Countering anti-Semitism needs to be a top priority at home and abroad. We need to be honest with ourselves and recognize that it is happening and that our solutions so far have been insufficient to stop this rising tide of hate.

We need to work with our partners to respond quickly and effectively to protect Jewish people in our countries and communities from violence. This is why we are considering Representative Manning and Representative Smith's bipartisan resolution condemning the global rise of anti-Semitism and calling upon countries to counter anti-Semitism.

For decades, when we talked about the Holocaust, the world said: ``Never again.''

The events of last week in Amsterdam and around the globe in the last year prove that we have failed Jews around the world. We failed to recognize the potency of this hate, and we have failed to keep them safe.

This resolution is our demonstration of our intent to remedy this problem and to live up to our promise.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to continue to support H. Res. 1449, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith), the chair of the Subcommittee on Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues, Ms. Manning and Mr. Smith, for this important, timely, and bipartisan resolution. It is critically important that we speak with one voice in countering anti-Semitism.

We have been fighting against this hatred for centuries. We can only make progress if we work together.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H. Res. 1449, and I yield back the balance of my time.