On April 27th, 2016, Congressman Robert J. Dold (IL-10) recognized Illini Public Affairs Commitee (IlliniPAC) on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives for our strong pro-Israel advocacy on campus. Thank you for the shout out, Congressman! We admire your leadership on the important issue of the American-Israeli alliance. We appreciate everything you do on behalf of our movement, and on behalf of students at the University of Illinois.
Watch Congressman Dold’s speech here:
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the outstanding work of IlliniPAC, a group of students on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus who are making a positive and important impact through their pro-Israel advocacy. IlliniPAC is focused on building bridges throughout the student community and educating fellow students of all backgrounds about Israel. At a time when there are so many concerted efforts to promote myths and terrible mistruths about Israel, the student leaders of IlliniPAC have stepped forward with a positive message to highlight the importance of a strong and bipartisan U.S.-Israel relationship. I particularly want to commend IlliniPAC for its proactive and constructive efforts to oppose misguided calls to promote boycotts, divestment, and sanctioning, otherwise known as BDS, against Israel. As the sponsor of the bipartisan Combating BDS Act of 2016 in Congress, I greatly appreciate the efforts by IlliniPAC to oppose BDS campaigns targeting Israel. These BDS campaigns perpetuate damaging falsehoods against Israel only to serve to divide and separate students on campus. The truth is that the BDS movement has neither brought Israelis and Palestinians closer to peace nor advanced the laudable goal of improving dialogue between supporters of both sides. Instead, the BDS movement has simply been employed as a hateful weapon to delegitimize Israel and those who stand with her. Once again I would like to thank IlliniPAC for taking a leadership role on campus and for the work that they do to spread the positive message about Israel, an oasis of freedom, democracy, and tolerance in one of the world’s most volatile region.
Disclaimer: IlliniPAC does not endorse any candidate for public office.