Thursday, May 9, 2019

MN-04: Rep. McCollum keeps trying to do something for the Palestinians, but without enough company

From a recent email I got:
Rep. Betty McCollum of Minnesota just reintroduced her legislation in Congress that would prohibit our tax dollars from funding the Israeli military detention of Palestinian children—and this time, it’s an even stronger challenge to occupation and apartheid! The groundbreaking bill is the followup to H.R. 4391 in the last Congress, which boasted 31 cosponsors.
This bill exists because every year, Israel detains and prosecutes between 500 and 700 Palestinian children in military courts that have a conviction rate of 99.74%. Instead of living free and safe childhoods, Palestinian children fear Israeli soldiers pulling them from their beds in the middle of the night to face torture and ill-treatment. - US Campaign for Palestinian Rights
I get that Israel has a “right to exist.” I also get the population and resource pressures that country is facing. But that doesn’t give the country’s politicians, or any of its citizens, any right to treat the Palestinians as subject people without rights - up to and including extremes of exploitation, abuse, and even murder.


1 comment:

  1. What does it say that Congresswoman McCollum gets support for H.R. 2407, the Promoting Human Rights for Palestinian Children Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act from more religious organizations than Members of Congress ?
    After two weeks, McCollum's bill has zero co-sponsors ... but written support from
    Disciples of Christ
    Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)
    Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP)
    Presbyterian Church (USA)
    The Episcopal Church
    United Church of Christ
    United Methodist General Board of Church and Society
    and many other organizations.

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