Veterans for Peace to Val Hoyle: Call it genocide

Presenter: At Val Hoyle’s appearance at South Eugene High School Aug. 20, Veterans for Peace shared three requests. Here’s KEPW’s Jana Thrift:

Jana Thrift (KEPW): We’re here today at the Val Hoyle town hall in Eugene, Oregon, and I’d like to welcome you, Pat, to introduce yourself and share with us what you guys are doing here with Veterans for Peace.

Pat Driscoll (Veterans for Peace): Yeah, thank you, Jana. My name is Pat Driscoll. I’m a resident of Eugene. I served in the U.S. Navy from 1972 through 1975, and I am the spokesperson for Eugene’s Veterans for Peace Chapter 159.

[00:00:44] First off, I’d like to thank KEPW and all the staff for the outstanding work they’re doing, giving a voice to people, in view of the frankly disgusting swamp that is the mass media. So you guys are doing a great job.

[00:01:01] Now, why we’re here today. We have two challenges for Congresswoman Val Hoyle. The first challenge is: She has refused to characterize the actions that Israel is taking in Gaza as genocide, which is rather surprising in view of all the evidence of genocide and also statements of her fellow progressive Democrats.

[00:01:27] Specifically, we have Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.), who recently stated, ‘We are watching a livestreamed genocide. We cannot look away.’

[00:01:43] So you know, our position is that given what her fellow progressive Democrats are saying and what the evidence is, we’re challenging Val Hoyle to say the word ‘genocide.’ So that’s our first challenge to her.

[00:01:58] The second challenge is: She receives $70,551 from the J Street PAC, which characterizes itself as a pro-Israel, pro-peace, pro-democracy lobbying group.

[00:02:15] And the problem we have with that is, it’s like a lobbying company saying for Big Oil, saying, ‘Yeah, this Big Oil company is pro-environment and pro-fossil fuels.’

[00:02:30] Well, wait a minute. Those two ideas are mutually exclusive. And so in the context of Israel saying that Israel is pro-peace, it’s not. It’s pro-genocide. So when a lobbying group says it’s pro-Israel and pro-peace, what they’re really saying is that they are pro-genocide.

[00:02:51] The other point is claiming that Israel is pro-democracy. Well, the problem with that is Israel is an apartheid state. And in an apartheid state, the Israeli citizens are granted more rights, more access to land than are the Palestinians.

[00:03:13] And again, the idea that you can characterize this apartheid state of Israel as a democracy, again, those two ideas do not go together, calling Israel a democracy, ’cause it is in fact an apartheid state.

[00:03:30] So those are the two challenges that we have for Congresswoman Val Hoyle: to say the word ‘genocide,’ second to return, to refund the $70,551 she received from the J Street PAC.

[00:03:44] And we have a third challenge, which is to everybody here attending the town hall and to all your listeners, which is to resist, which is to take whatever action they can, including, for example, joining the boycott, divest and sanctions regime.

[00:04:04] And to remind everybody that any act of resistance, no matter how small, counts.

[00:04:13] Jana Thrift (KEPW): Thank you. Three challenges, very succinct and doable, it seems like. Something that she could actually make happen if she wants to. (Exactly.). Yeah. I appreciate that. Thank you for being here. (You’re welcome.) Thank you for all that Veterans for Peace and you as a veteran have done for our democracy.

[00:04:34] Pat Driscoll (Veterans for Peace): Absolutely. Thank you.

[00:04:37] Presenter: KEPW’s Jana Thrift interviews Pat Driscoll from Veterans for Peace. They’re asking Val Hoyle to use the word ‘genocide.’ For more reporting from the Val Hoyle town hall, keep it right here on 97.3, Eugene’s PeaceWorks community radio.