OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Humanity Matters

Floor Speech

Date: Sept. 1, 2026
Location: Washington, DC

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Ms. STEVENS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today after returning this morning from Israel convinced of something simple: We do not have to choose whose humanity matters.

I stood at the Nova Festival site where young people went to dance and 364 never came home.

I walked through Kibbutz Kfar Aza and saw the remains of bloodshed and attacks on peaceful people.

I sat across from people who survived captivity and somehow found the courage to tell us what it means to come home.

Their humanity matters.

I also met World Central Kitchen workers feeding Palestinian families in Gaza, and at Kerem Shalom, I saw the urgent work of getting food and medicine to innocent people trapped in a war they did not choose.

Their humanity matters too.

At Hadassah Medical Center, I saw perhaps the clearest reminder of all: Jewish and Arab doctors and nurses working side by side to save whoever comes through the door, because medicine does not ask who you choose whose life is worth saving. Every life is worth saving and neither should humanity.

We can mourn the victims of October 7 and demand dignity for innocent Palestinians. We can demand security for Israelis and humanitarian relief for Gaza.

When the world asks us to choose whose humanity matters, America should have the answer: Everyone's.

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