House Passes Bill to Deny Entry to Immigrants Who Took Part in Oct. 7 Attack on Israel

The U.S. Capitol building in Washington on Jan. 26, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

The House passed a bill on Jan. 31 that would deny immigrants entry to the United States if they were party to the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel.

The No Immigration Benefits for Hamas Terrorists Act passed 422–2, with one voting “present.” The two “nay” votes were cast by Democrats.

The measure, introduced by Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.), would apply the Immigration and Nationality Act to immigrants “who carried out, participated in, planned, financed, afforded material support to, or otherwise facilitated any of the attacks against Israel initiated by Hamas beginning on Oct. 7, 2023.”

The attack by Hamas resulted in the greatest single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. Hamas terrorists invaded Israel from Gaza, which the terrorist group controls, and murdered, maimed, and raped Israelis, as well as taking more than 200 hostages into Gaza.

Israel has compiled a 45-minute film with graphic footage that shows Hamas terrorists shooting Israeli car drivers and passengers, going into a kibbutz to murder residents, including babies, and invading the Nova Music Festival, causing attendees to flee for their lives. Additionally, Hamas terrorists dragged an elderly female Holocaust survivor in a wheelchair into Gaza, though that is not shown in the film.

Screenings have been organized by the Israeli Embassy in the United States.

All of this occurred as Jews were celebrating Simchat Torah, a Jewish holiday to mark the completion of reading the Torah and starting to read the Five Books of Moses again.

In response to the Oct. 7 attack, Israel launched a military operation in Gaza, targeting Hamas personnel and infrastructure. Negotiations are ongoing between Qatar and Hamas that could result in a temporary pause in the fighting to allow for an exchange of hostages and Palestinian prisoners who have been accused by Israel of terrorism.

Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and the Organization of American States.

It was created by Ahmed Yassin and six other Muslims in 1987, during the First Intifada in Israel. Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, an extremist organization that has expressed hostility toward Israel and the West. Hamas stands for “Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya,” or “Islamic Resistance Movement.”

Hamas’s charter, published in 1988, calls for the Jewish State to be wiped off the map.

In 2007, two years after Israel withdrew from Gaza, a strip of land west of Israel and east of the Mediterranean, Hamas took power.

Hamas has a military as well as a political unit, and its members wear a green headband.  Membership is presently between 20,000 and 25,000, according to the National Counterterrorism Center.

In 2017, Hamas published a “document of general principles and policies” stating that “a real state of Palestine is a state that has been liberated.”

Hamas is known for using Gazan civilian centers, including hospitals and schools, to launch rockets into Israel. The terrorist group uses civilians as human shields.

It is one of the proxy groups of Iran, designated as a state sponsor of terrorism. Tehran is known for giving Hamas financial and other types of support. Iran helped Hamas plan the attacks and gave it the green light to execute them, The Wall Street Journal reported on Oct. 8.