{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cotton-to-un-is-hamas-a-terrorist-organization", "Cotton to UN: Is Hamas a Terrorist Organization", "2024-09-10", "2024", "2024-09", "Republican", "Senate", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", "cotton", "https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE\n\nContact: Caroline Tabler or Patrick McCann (202) 224-2353\n\nSeptember 10, 2024\n\nCotton to UN: Is Hamas a Terrorist Organization?\n\nWashington, D.C. \u2014 Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) today wrote a letter to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker T\u00fcrk, highlighting his refusal to refusal to call Hamas a terrorist organization in the wake of their brutal execution of six hostages. Senator Cotton pointed out the UN\u2019s repeated false equivalencies between the nation of Israel and the terrorist group Hamas.\n\nIn part, Senator Cotton wrote:\n\n\u201cCould you please answer this simple question: Is Hamas a terrorist organization?\u201d\n\nFull text of the letter can be found here and below.\n\nSeptember 10, 2024\n\nMr. Volker T\u00fcrk\n\nUnited Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights\n\nUnited Nations Plaza\n\nNew York, New York 10017\n\nDear Mr. T\u00fcrk:\n\nI write regarding your shocking failure to condemn the terrorists of Hamas. While you preen as the moral voice of the world, you\u2019ve refused to call Hamas a terrorist organization and repeatedly drawn a false equivalence between Hamas and Israel.\n\nYou and your United Nations colleagues should immediately and unequivocally call Hamas what it is: a terrorist organization. The United States, United Kingdom, Israel, Australia, Japan, and even the European Union took this action long ago.\n\nYet moral blindness unfortunately seems to be your modus operandi\u2014never more evident than in your statement earlier this month after Hamas executed six hostages. Although you professed that you were \u201chorrified\u201d by the executions, you failed even to mention Hamas as the murderer and called for an \u201cindependent\u201d investigation into the killing. Hamas had already admitted to these barbaric murders, so I\u2019m not sure what such an investigation would prove.\n\nOf course, the United Nation has an obscene penchant for targeting and smearing Israel. From the UN\u2019s infamous \u201cZionism is Racism\u201d resolution a half century ago to its parroting of Hamas casualty numbers today, the UN consistently sides with terrorists against the Jewish state. Your office especially has shown contempt for Israel, repeatedly posting criticisms of Israel on your official social-media accounts and falsely accusing Israel of war crimes.\n\nYour moral equivalence between brutal terrorists and a nation-state protecting its citizens is appalling. You have painted Israel as the aggressor while ignoring that Hamas bears responsibility for civilian deaths in Gaza.\n\nBut you can address these concerns with very little effort by simply joining the rest of the civilized world. Could you please answer this simple question: Is Hamas a terrorist organization?\n\nPlease respond to this letter no later than September 17. To make it very easy for you, I\u2019ll happily accept a letter that says nothing more than \u201cHamas is a terrorist organization\u201d between the salutation and the signature line.\n\nSurely you can muster the courage to do that?\n\nSincerely,\n\n____________________\n\nTom Cotton\n\nUnited States Senator\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T21:43:57Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cotton-to-un-is-hamas-a-terrorist-organization"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.6899519357830286, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}