HOUSE UNANIMOUSLY PASSES BALFOUR CENTENNIAL RESOLUTION WHILE
AMERICAN ZIONIST MOVEMENT MEETS IN WASHINGTON
(Friday, November 17, 2017): The US House of Representatives has unanimously passed H. Con. Res. 92—“Recognizing the deep and abiding friendship between the United States and Israel” and commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the Balfour Declaration. The resolution was adopted while The American Zionist Movement (AZM) convened its National Conference in Washington in honor of the Balfour Declaration. AZM had promoted awareness of this anniversary among Members of Congress and advocated for passage of a Congressional resolution to mark the Balfour Centennial.
Richard D. Heideman, President of AZM, said “We take great pride that, at the same time as the American Zionist Movement brought together a broad and diverse coalition of Zionist voices in Washington the House of Representatives took decisive and bipartisan action to honor the 100th year anniversary of the Balfour Declaration. We thank the House Foreign Relations Committee, including Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) and Ranking Member Elliot Engel (D-NY) for quickly advancing the resolution out of committee. We thank the entire House for passing the resolution unanimously concurrently with our Conference convening in Washington. The House delivered a clarion call of united American support for Israel on this momentous anniversary.
The AZM conference, which is concluding this morning, took place during “Zionism Anniversaries Month” and commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration and the 70th anniversary of the UN Partition Resolution, two key events in the path to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.
The three-day AZM conference featured a day on Capitol Hill with a luncheon paying tribute to Israel and its Ambassador Ron Dermer. The AZM gathering was addressed by Ambassador Dermer, Senator James Lankford (R-OK) and Representatives Ron DeSantis (R-FL), Eliot Engel (D-NY), Trent Franks (R-AZ), Jerry Nadler (D-NY), Robert Pittinger (R_NC), Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Ed Royce (R-CA), Brad Schneider (D-IL), Joe Wilson (R-SC), and Lee Zeldin (R- NY). Video greetings were delivered by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer (NY), Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks of the United Kingdom and attorney Alan Dershowitz. Messages were also read from Vice President Mike Pence and United States Ambassador to Israel David Friedman. Other notable speakers included Baroness Ruth Deech of the UK House of Lords; British Col.(ret.) Richard Kemp; Israel Brig. Gen. (ret.) Yossi Kuperwasser; Gusti Yehoshua-Braverman of the World Zionist Organization and Richard D. Heideman.
The conference was convened in partnership with the Department of Diaspora Activities of the World Zionist Organization and the Balfour Initiative of the Israel Forever Foundation. For more information, including the conference program, visit www.ZionismForward.com.
