April, 16 2021, 12:00am EDT
New Bill Would Protect the Rights of Palestinian Children and Families
WASHINGTON
Today, Rep. Betty McCollum introduced new legislation designed to hold Israel accountable for continued abuse against children held in Israeli military detention as well as the destruction of Palestinian property and annexation of land. The Defending the Human Rights of Palestinian Children and Families Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act (H.R. 2590) would ensure that U.S. financial assistance provided to Israel is not used to support holding Palestinian children in Israeli military detention or prosecuting them in a military court. It also restricts aid use for the unlawful seizure, appropriation and destruction of Palestinian property and forcible transfer of civilians in the West Bank, as well as further Israeli annexation of Palestinian land.
"Detaining children in a military court system, destroying Palestinian property and expanding Israeli control over Palestinian lands should not be supported by U.S. taxpayers," said Jennifer Bing, director of the American Friends Service Committee's Palestine Activism program. "Funding these abuses with our tax dollars is contrary to promoting human rights, dignity, and equality which are critical to achieving a just and lasting peace for Palestinians and Israelis."
The bill's introduction follows a similar piece of legislation introduced by Rep. McCollum last session, and comes after years of advocacy by the American Friends Service Committee, Defense for Children International - Palestine, and others. Israel has the dubious distinction of being the only country in the world that systematically prosecutes between 500 and 700 children each year in military courts that lack fundamental fair trial rights and protections. Under Israeli military law, Palestinian children have no right to a lawyer during interrogation, and frequently report physical and verbal abuse from the moment of their arrest. Since 2000, more than 10,000 Palestinian children have been subject to the Israeli military court system.
The bill's advocates expressed particular concern that Palestinian children were subject to a different legal process than Israeli children. "Palestinian and Israeli children experience separate and unequal treatment under the law," said Aura Kanegis, AFSC's Director for Public Policy and Advocacy. "While Palestinian children are subjected to regular abuse in military detention, no Israeli children, including those who live in the West Bank, are tried in Israeli military courts."
The inclusion of land annexation and property destruction in this version of the bill indicates growing support in Congress for upholding international law and protecting the rights of Palestinians. "This comes at a critically important time, as we continue to see the devastating destruction of Palestinian homes and land," said Mike Merryman-Lotze, AFSC's Middle East Program Director. "In the next few weeks alone, more than 100 homes are at risk of demolition, potentially displacing 2,000 people. We are calling on every single member of Congress to support this bill."
American Friends Service Committee is a Quaker organization devoted to service, development, and peace programs throughout the world. Our work is based on the belief in the worth of every person, and faith in the power of love to overcome violence and injustice.
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"Many lives have been sacrificed and it's time to stop wasting resources," said an advocate with Amnesty International.
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The global "war on drugs" led by the United States has been a costly and destructive failure that must be terminated and replaced by an approach focused on harm-reduction, an independent United Nations expert said Monday.
Tlaleng Mofokeng, the U.N.'s special rapporteur on the right to health, wrote in a report delivered to the Human Rights Council that since the 1970s, the global drug war has "heavily criminalized and stigmatized the production, distribution, and consumption of psychoactive drugs, with devastating effects across the globe and particularly in the Global South."
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Human rights advocates applauded the U.N. expert's recommendations.
Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International's senior director for research, advocacy, policy, and campaigns, said in a statement that "this is a bold and urgent call on governments worldwide to finally abandon the manifestly failed policies of the so-called 'war on drugs.'"
"For over six decades, this ill-conceived approach to public health has not only failed to reduce the use and supply of drugs, it has also resulted in widespread human rights violations, violence, mass incarceration, suffering, and abuse across the globe, affecting disproportionately people from historically marginalized communities," said Guevara-Rosas. "This report powerfully highlights that another way is possible. Focusing on harm reduction, treatment, and social support has proven the benefits of putting human rights at the center of drug policies."
The United States has spent over a trillion dollars fighting the war on drugs, which the Nixon administration launched in the early 1970s. In recent years, the U.S. and European governments have used chunks of their international aid budgets to fight the drug war internationally, fueling militarization and deadly violence in Latin America and elsewhere.
Between 2012 and 2021, rich governments devoted nearly a billion dollars in their international aid budgets to fighting the drug war, according to an analysis released last year by Harm Reduction International. More than half of that aid money came from the U.S.
The Guardianreported in September that the U.S. has "hugely increased" the amount of international aid spent on narcotics control under President Joe Biden, who has faced criticism from rights groups for extending punitive drug war policies.
"Many lives have been sacrificed and it's time to stop wasting resources," Guevara-Rosas said Monday. "Governments must consign the 'war on drugs' to history and start implementing all the recommendations outlined in this report. This includes decriminalizing personal use, possession, cultivation, and acquisition of drugs and moving towards the effective regulation of drugs to ensure legal and safe access for those authorized."
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A 42-year-old white woman has been charged with attempted murder and injury to a child following her attempt to drown a 3-year-old Palestinian-American in the pool of a Euless, Texas apartment complex last month, according toCNN and other media outlets.
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"My country is facing a war, and we are facing that hate here," the 3-year-old's mother, identified only as Mrs. H. due to safety concerns, said in a statement from CAIR's Texas chapter. "My daughter is traumatized. Whenever I open the apartment door, she runs away and hides, telling me she is afraid the lady will come and immerse her head in the water again."
A reminder that violent Islamophobia cannot be allowed in a decent society. There is no excuse or justification for trying to drown a 3-year-old.https://t.co/4N9nVGGqQd
— M.O.D.O.X. (@MODOX613) June 23, 2024
According to CAIR's account and media reports of the May 19 incident, Elizabeth Wolf, a 42-year-old white woman, allegedly approached Mrs. H. making racist interrogations about what country the family was from and the foreign language they were speaking. Mrs. H., a 32-year-old Palestinian-American woman, was wearing a hijab as she watched her two children play in the shallow end of the pool.
Wolf jumped into the pool and tried to drag the two children to the deep end. The elder of the two escaped, but Wolf allegedly held the 3-year-old child's head underwater. When Mrs. H. tried to intercede, Wolf allegedly took the hijab and tried to beat Mrs. H. with it, and also kicked her to keep her away as she attacked the child. A man then rescued the child.
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A woman in Texas tried to drown a 3 year old Muslim Palestinian child at her apartment complex pool after making racist remarks.
She has posted the $35,000 bond and is now back on the streets https://t.co/uoxH4l2fB6
— chris evans (@notcapnamerica) June 23, 2024
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