Did your Member of Congress Stand Up for Palestinian Children?

Nabi Saleh demonstrations.

On Friday, 19 Members of the U.S. House of Representatives urged Secretary of State John Kerry to defend the human rights of Palestinian children living under Israeli occupation.

Led by U.S. Representative Betty McCollum, the 19 Members of Congress signed a letter to the U.S. State Department that focuses on the thousands of Palestinian children who have been detained, interrogated, prosecuted, and/or imprisoned within the Israeli military justice system.

Here’s who signed:

Rep Betty McCollum
Rep John Conyers
Rep Keith Ellison
Rep Barbara Lee
Rep Danny K. Davis
Rep Raúl M. Grijalva
Rep André Carson
Rep Anna G. Eshoo
Rep Peter DeFazio
Rep Earl Blumenauer
Rep Jim McDermott
Rep Chellie Pingree
Rep Bobby L. Rush
Rep James P. McGovern
Rep Maxine Waters
Rep Henry C. “Hank” Johnson
Rep Donald S. Beyer, Jr.
Rep Eleanor Holmes Norton
Rep Eddie Bernice Johnson

Is your Member of Congress NOT on the list?  

Call them and voice your concern: (202) 224-3121

According to UNICEF (PDF), since 2003, more than 7,000 Palestinian children living in the occupied West Bank have been detained, interrogated, prosecuted, and/or imprisoned within the Israeli military justice system. The UN has separately reported that Israeli forces have been responsible for injuring more than 1,500 Palestinian children there in the span of three years.

While Palestinian children and adults face Israeli military courts, Israeli settlers benefit from Israeli civil law. Israel gives settlers a different system of justice — even though they are living illegally in the very same occupied Palestinian territories.

In the words of the 19 Members of Congress:

“Secretary Kerry, we urge the Department of State to elevate the human rights of Palestinian children to a priority status in our bilateral relationship with the Government of Israel. Furthermore, we fully expect the State Department to address the status of Israel’s military detention system’s treatment of Palestinian children in its annual human rights report.”

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6 thoughts on “Did your Member of Congress Stand Up for Palestinian Children?

  1. "According to UNICEF (PDF), since 2003," REALLY? UNICEF IS WHERE AMNESTY IS GETTING THEIR INFORMATION WHO RUNS UNICEF PALESTINE! YOU PEOPLE ARE SUCH A BUNCH OF GODDAMN LIARS! THESE CHILDREN HAVE ALL HAD BOMBS STRAPPED TO THEIR BACKS WITH THE INTENT OF KILLING JEWS!

    WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE AND WHY DO YOU PROPAGATE THESE LIES!

    PALESTINIANS ARE FOR THE MOST PART TERORIST FROM WHICH ISRAEL HAS TO PROTECT THEM SELVES. DO NOT BUY THE LIE!

  2. Amnesty, Your narrative is quite openly biased, and obviously one sided. Clearly you have a hate on Israels inalienable right to defend itself and are consciously ignoring the deceptive tactics of Hamas. You either "buy" their skillfull propaganda or are indeed "in league" with them. You cannot be trusted to be impartial.

    U.S. General Charles Wald, USAF (Ret.): UNHRC Report on 2014 Gaza Conflict Unbalanced, Fails to Accurately Assess Violations by Hamas “The UNHRC report on the Gaza conflict is unbalanced and fails to accurately assess which parties violated the Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC).

    “This report follows the same pattern of the UNHRC’s Goldstone Report, which assessed the previous Gaza conflict, but which was later repudiated by Mr. Goldstone himself, as well as being widely discredited by experts in the laws applicable to war. That is, this new report fails to account for the primacy of LOAC in regulating the conduct of combatants, and fails to accurately assess the gross violations of LOAC by Hamas, while inaccurately portraying the actions of the IDF as violations of international law.

    “The task force study of this conflict found evidence that Hamas had violated LOAC by intentionally placing civilians in jeopardy to mask military initiatives. U.S. forces will increasingly see this unlawful behavior mimicked in future conflicts against hybrid, non-state forces embedded in urban environments.

    “The international community should not accept this inaccurate and biased report and should instead rely on balanced and accurate reports that are authored by actual experts on how to conduct combat operations in accordance with LOAC. "