According to a new bill introduced in the US Congress this Friday, Washington should make sure before any aid to Israel that they don’t contribute to abuses of Palestinians, particularly children.
This Friday morning, Democratic US Congresswoman Betty McCollum introduced a bill in the Senate according to which, the US government would be banned to assistance Israel before making sure that those helps will never contribute to detention of Palestinian children.
Backed immediately by 17 Democrats in the House, McCollum also suggested in her bill that any US military activity that would facilitate “further unilateral annexation” of the occupied West Bank for Israel must also be interdicted.
“Not $1 of US aid should be used to commit human rights violations, demolish families’ homes, or permanently annex Palestinian lands,” McCollum said in a statement before the House on Friday, adding also that “the United States provides billions in assistance for Israel’s government each year — and those dollars should go toward Israel’s security, not toward actions that violate international law and cause harm.”
Good to mention that Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign assistance since World War II. Every year, Israel, which is strongly accused by the Amnesty International of gross human rights violations, receives at least $3.8bn in aid from the US government.
According to a recent report by the US Congress on foreign aids “for the facial year 2023, Congress authorized $520 million for joint U.S.-Israel defense programs (including $500 million for missile defense) in the FY2023 James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act. Per the terms of the MOU, Congress appropriated $3.8 billion for Israel (FMF and missile defense) in the FY2023 Consolidated Appropriations Act, and added $98.58 million in funding for other cooperative defense and nondefense programs,”
The anti-Israeli bill, a good first step to support Palestine in US
Entitled as “the Defending the Human Rights of Palestinian Children and Families Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act”, the bill declares that “Israel’s drive to perpetuate its control over the occupied West Bank results in other serious violations of international law, including the unlawful demolition of Palestinian homes and the forcible transfer of Palestinian civilians,”
It also notes that between 500 and 700 children in Palestine, aged 12 to 17, are detained by Israel every year and prosecuted before military courts. “In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, there are two separate and unequal legal systems, with Israeli military law imposed on Palestinians and Israeli civilian law applied to Israeli settlers,” the proposed legislation also says.
But the bill has little to zero chance to be successfully passed in Congress. The reason is because the US Congress is where Israel has a very strong influence and enjoys overwhelming bipartisan support from both Republicans and Democrats.
However, little as are the chances for passing such a bill in Congress, many Palestinian rights advocates believe that such measures are great first steps and can finally lead to debate about US policy and highlight the push to question unconditional aid to Israel.
They are hopeful that more changes will come in the near future, especially considering the facts that the Biden administration has a negative view about Israeli settlement plans, as well as public opinion polls in US that show a growing number of Americans, especially Democrats, sympathizing with Palestinian people and supporting restrictions on the US aids to Israel.
Among the supporters of McCollum’s bill were Virginia Representative Don Beyer; Congressional Progressive Caucus chair Pramila Jayapal; Palestinian American Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib; and prominent progressives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cori Bush, Ilhan Omar and Ayanna Pressley.
