Progressive Democratic Representative, Betty McColm, from the fourth electoral district in Minnesota, will present next week her project aimed at punishing Israel for its deliberate and persistent mistreatment of Palestinian children under occupation by the Israeli occupation soldiers for the second time. In the process of making it legal.
Representative McCollum said when she first introduced the HR 2500 project last year (April 15, 2021), that the goal is to present a law to defend the human rights of Palestinian children and families living under Israeli military occupation, which is a continuation of what she presented to the elected Congress No. 117, spring of the year 2019, the 116th Congress , elected in 2017.
McCollum´s Act prohibits Israel from using US taxpayer funds in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem to: “militarily detain, abuse or mistreat Palestinian children in Israeli military detention, or support, confiscate and destroy Palestinian property and homes in violation of international humanitarian law. ” Aiding or supporting unilateral Israeli annexation of Palestinian territories in violation of international humanitarian law.
McCollum, who is in the running for a new round in the elections that will be held on Tuesday, November 8, 2022 across the United States (where she is expected to win her seat again), stressed that "intended aid for Israel´s security should." never be used to violate the human rights of Palestinian children, or demolishing Palestinian family homes, or permanently annexing Palestinian land” and that “peace can only be achieved through respect for human rights, especially the rights of children, and this includes the United States taking responsibility for how aid funded by American taxpayers is used by recipient countries.” , including Israel, and therefore Congress must stop ignoring the grossly unjust and cruel mistreatment of Palestinian children and families living under Israeli military occupation.”
"I strongly believe that there is a growing consensus among the American people that the Palestinian people deserve justice, equality, human rights and the right to self-determination," McCollum said in her statement.
The bill is being introduced this time under the auspices of the original group, Representative Bobby L. Rush (Illinois), Rep. Danny K. Davis (Illinois), Rep. Andre Carson (Indian), Rep. Mary Newman (Illinois), Rep. Ilhan Omar (Minnesota), Rep. Mark Buchan (Michigan), Rep. Raul Rep. Chuy" García and Representative Jesus García (Illinois).
Progressive MPs consider it shocking that hundreds of Palestinian children are detained by the Israeli military every year, with an estimated number of Palestinian children between the ages of 12 and 17 who arrest between 500 and 700 children annually, and that after their arrest, children often Palestinians are subjected to cruel and ill treatment at the hands of the Israeli military authorities, and that violations (and human rights violations arrest) of Palestinian children after their suffer are widespread and systematic within the Israeli military detention system, which consists of army bases, detention and interrogation centers, law enforcement centers and prisons.
Experts who worked on the bill explain that by the time children arrive at detention centers for interrogation and interrogation, they are often tied up, blindfolded, frightened and sleep-deprived. The methods used by the Israeli authorities at the time of interrogation are usually physical and emotional coercive, often combining a combination of force, intimidation and violence with the intent to cause physical or emotional pain or suffering to obtain confessions from detained children. Children held alone and frightened often surrendered and pleaded guilty despite their innocence - after being threatened, frustrated, and verbally and physically abused, in some cases amounting to torture.
Experts and eyewitnesses warn that children who refuse to confess are punished and face solitary confinement, a punitive method used by interrogators to force a detained child to confess. According to a report by Defense for Children International in Palestine: “The physical and social isolation of Palestinian children for the purposes of interrogation by the Israeli authorities is a practice that constitutes solitary confinement, which amounts to torture or, inhuman or degrading cruel treatment under the norms of international law.”
The 118th begins its work after its return to sessions on January 3, 2023, for the winners of the elections held on Tuesday, November 8, 2022.
