At Tuesday afternoon’s virtual town hall, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-14th District) spent much of the hour defending his stance on Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip, with several constituents urging him to call for a sustained ceasefire.
Swalwell started the town hall by reiterating that he believes Israel has a right to defend itself and that a ceasefire should be conditioned on the release of all Israeli hostages, as well as Hamas, a Palestinian Islamic political party with a military wing, “(surrendering) and (laying) down its arms.”
“It’s clear to me there are different interpretations of ceasefire,” Swalwell said. “To me … it means Hamas returns every hostage, Hamas surrenders, Israel stops any attacks in Gaza.”
Swalwell said he supported the weeklong ceasefire that ended about a couple weeks ago and opposed the “extremist settler violence that is occurring in the West Bank,” pointing to a letter he helped spearhead, calling on Secretary of State Antony Blinken to encourage the Israeli government to uphold the rule of law, protect all civilians in the West Bank and hold vigilantes accountable.
In addition to answering pre-submitted questions, a handful of constituents were given the opportunity to ask questions directly over the Zoom call; all of them spoke about the crisis in Gaza and how there is no military solution.
Constituents emphasized the staggering death toll in Gaza, nearing 20,000 since Oct. 7, and how Israel is targeting journalists, poets and doctors, as well as their entire families. They highlighted the power disparity between the Israel Defense Forces, which receives $3.8 billion in annual military aid from the U.S., and Gaza, which has been under an illegal blockade for almost two decades, where there is no military, and where half of the 2.3 million inhabitants are children.
“An army versus an army is a war,” Palestinian American constituent Sandra Nasser said, “but an army versus a civilian population is a genocide. What is taking place in Gaza, and the world knows this, is a genocide.”
Swalwell, who went on an almost $30,000, all-expenses-paid trip to Israel earlier this year with his wife, courtesy of lobbyist J Street Education Fund, was not swayed. He said he believes that Hamas is a terrorist organization and newspapers like the New York Times have illustrated “there’s no question Hamas has embedded itself into civilian populations.”
“That doesn’t mean you don’t have an obligation to protect against the loss of innocent life, but it certainly makes it more complex trying to go after an actor like Hamas,” Swalwell said.
He said he rejected the recent $14.3 billion military aid package to Israel because “it did not include humanitarian aid for Palestinians,” but, far from opposing military solutions, Swalwell lamented Congress’s inability to send more military funding to Ukraine and Taiwan, nor its ability to send humanitarian aid “that could help the Middle East.”
Constituent Mack Levine, who described himself as Jewish and anti-Zionist, questioned Swalwell’s recent vote in favor of a resolution stating anti-Zionism, opposition to the political ideology advocating for the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine, is antisemitism, bigotry against Jewish people. The resolution included instances of people using slogans like “From the river to the sea” and “Free Palestine” as examples of antisemitism.
Swalwell said he voted for the resolution because he believes that Jewish people have a right to their own state after experiencing the Holocaust but did not believe criticizing the state of Israel was antisemitic. He added that he does not support the Netanyahu administration.
“I think it is patriotic if you’re Israeli or American to criticize your government,” Swalwell said.
Sonia Waraich can be reached at 510-952-7455.
