The measure, backed by 17 Democrats, would bar US assistance to Israel from contributing to the detention of Palestinian children.
Washington D.C. – A United States congresswoman has renewed a push to ensure that aid to Israel does not contribute to abuses of Palestinians, particularly children, as progressive lawmakers continue to call for conditionalities on aid.
On Friday, Democratic Rep. Betty McCollum reintroduced a bill that would ban US aid from contributing to the detention of Palestinian children and military activities that would facilitate “further unilateral annexation” of the occupied west bank.
“No US aid dollar should be used to commit human rights violations, demolish family homes or permanently annex Palestinian land,” McCollum said in a statement.
“The United States provides billions in assistance to the Israeli government every year, and those dollars should go toward Israel’s security, not actions that violate international law and cause harm.”
I have officially reintroduced the Law for the Defense of Palestinian Children and Families Living Under Israeli Military Occupation, because not one dollar of US aid should be used to commit human rights violations.
Read my full statement here: https://t.co/7vUo1hDpQp pic.twitter.com/UvIYFH2ohA
— Representative Betty McCollum (@BettyMcCollum04) May 5, 2023
Israel accused of apartheid by prominent human rights groups including Amnesty Internationalreceives at least $3.8 billion in US aid annually.
The bill, dubbed the Law for the Defense of the Human Rights of Palestinian Children and Families Living Under Israeli Military Occupation, has little chance of passing in Congress, where Israel enjoys overwhelming bipartisan support.
But Palestinian rights advocates say such measures lead to discussion on US policy and highlights the drive to question unconditional aid to Israel. They point to public opinion polls showing that a growing number of Americans, especially Democrats, sympathize with the Palestinians and support imposing restrictions on attendance.
McCollum’s bill was cosponsored by 16 Democrats, including Virginia Rep. Don Beyer; the president of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Pramila Jayapal; Palestinian-American congressman Rashida Tlaib; and prominent progressives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cori Bush, Ilhan Omar, and Ayanna Pressley.
Rep. Barbara Lee, who is running for the US Senate in California, and Summer Lee, a first-term congresswoman who topped millions of dollars in campaign spending against her. by pro-Israeli groups last year, they also backed the bill.
“Israel’s drive to perpetuate its control over the occupied West Bank results in other serious violations of international law, including the illegal demolition of Palestinian homes and the forcible transfer of Palestinian civilians,” the bill says.
He also noted that between 500 and 700 Palestinian children, ages 12 to 17, are detained by Israel every year and tried before military courts.
“In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, two separate and unequal legal systems exist, with Israeli military law imposed on Palestinians and Israeli civil law applied to Israeli settlers,” the proposed legislation says.
McCollum first introduced a version of the bill in 2017 and has resubmitted it in every Congress every two years since. The measure has never been considered by the House Foreign Affairs Committee, currently chaired by Michael McCaul, a staunchly pro-Israel Republican.
“The dehumanization of the Palestinian people has been such an effective narrative that 75 percent of Congress wants absolutely no restriction on US military aid to Israel, effectively supporting the systemic repression of Palestinian society,” the congresswoman said. he told Al Jazeera in 2021, when he last introduced the bill.
Last month, 14 lawmakers, including Sen. Bernie Sanders and many of McCollum’s bill’s co-sponsors, issued a letter urging Democratic President Joe Biden to investigate whether US weapons were used to commit rights violations against Palestinians.
The letter called for ensuring that “US taxpayer funds do not support illegal settlement projects.”
The Biden administration has criticized Israeli settlement plansbut US officials often stress that Washington’s commitment to Israel is “iron.”
As a candidate in late 2019, Biden, a self-professed Zionist, dismissed putting conditions on aid to Israel as an “alien” idea.
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