Loading ...Celebrating the Life of Congressman Paul Findley
By Katie Teague/Arab America Contributing Writer
On August 9th, the United States lost 11-term Republican congressman Paul Findley. He was 98 years old and suffering from congestive heart failure when he passed away in his hometown of Jacksonville, Illinois. As a leader in government for the support of Palestinian rights, Mr. Findley will be remembered and missed in the Arab American community.
Born on June 23rd, 1921, Mr. Findley spent most of his younger years in Illinois. He acquired a bachelor’s degree from Illinois college, where a congressional office museum filled with his manuscripts and antiquities was later established. Very few of such museums exist around the United States today.
During World War II, he served as an officer in the Navy. This led to his lack of support for sending troops abroad later in his political career. According to the Washington Post:
Mr. Findley working in his office at Capitol Hill (CQ Roll Call/AP)He called for a review of U.S. policies in Vietnam and drafted a resolution asserting that the executive branch had usurped congressional authority by committing U.S. troops to an overseas conflict.
He was an author of the War Powers Resolution of 1973, commonly called the War Powers Act, which was designed to require the president to notify Congress of foreign military engagements.
Before Mr. Findley was appointed to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1960, he was the “publisher of a small-town weekly newspaper”. He spent the next 22 years of his life working in Congress, demonstrating his support for both conservative republican policies and the legislation for civil rights by Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson. Above all, Mr. Findley differed from his political counterparts in his criticisms of the U.S government’s unhindered support for Israel.
In 1980, he stated:
It makes sense for us to talk to the PLO, to communicate with them and try to influence their behavior. It would reduce tension and conflict in that area. We can’t wish the Palestinians away — they’re a fact.
The Washington Post also remarks how “some people denounced his remarks as anti-Semitic — an accusation Mr. Findley and several mainstream Jewish organizations rejected. Increasingly, Mr. Findley started to speak out against what he considered a “monolithic congressional lobbying effort to support Israeli policies at the expense of Palestinians.”
Mr. Paul Findley speaks at the Washington Report’s Israel Lobby Conference in 2015
Throughout his life, Mr. Paul Findley “continued to be a strong ally of the Arab and Muslim communities. Not only did he found the Council for the National Interest (CNI), a nonprofit advocacy group pushing for peace and the protection of human rights in the Middle East, but he was also an avid supporter of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. ”
Over time, he also published a number of important books, including “They Dare to Speak Out: People and Institutions Confront Israel’s Lobby”. His argument that anyone who didn’t support lobbying for Israel “risked being branded anti-Semitic, “the most powerful instrument of intimidation.” demonstrates how little times have changed 34 years later. In 2011, he also published his autobiography; the same year his wife, Lillian Gemme, passed away.
Since the news of Mr. Findley’s death, many have expressed their sadness for the loss of a great leader, father, and friend.
The following from the Institute for Public Accuracy encapsulates Professor Francis Boyle’s relations with Mr. Findley:
was Boyle is a professor of international law at the University of Illinois, his books include Destroying World Order. He was a longtime associate of Findley, including appearing on several accuracy.org news releases together on the War Powers Resolution. He was also an early advocate of using the boycott, divestment and sanctions tactics employed successfully against apartheid South Africa against Israel.
He said this week: “Findley was a Republican, but the pro-Israeli lobby effectively destroyed his political career, as they would for Republican Illinois Sen. Charles Percy during the same period. You thus have both the Democrats and Republicans dominated by pro-Israeli individuals, like Hoyer or now Sen. Dick Durbin, who defeated Findley in 1982.”