In an April 25 letter to members of Congress, twenty-five Christian faith leaders are calling on representatives to endorse House Resolution 2590, “Defending the Human Rights of Palestinian Children and Families Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act.” The letter was released to the public during a webinar featuring Congresswoman Betty McCollum (MN) who introduced the bill.
Asked to explain why she authored the bill, she responded, “Millions of Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are subject to repressive conditions under military occupation that systematically violates human rights.” The bill seeks to promote justice, equality and human rights for Palestinian children and families by prohibiting Israeli authorities from using U.S. taxpayer funds to detain and torture Palestinian children, demolish and seize Palestinian homes, and further annex Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank.
HR2590 is currently co-sponsored by 32 representatives, whom McCollum described as “a core group of courageous people in Congress willing to stand up for human rights, Palestinian rights, because they recognize that Palestinians deserve to be treated with dignity and equality.” She went on to say, “But the majority of Congress still finds it very easy to demonize Palestinians and support Israel’s unfairly having policies that systematically persecute Palestinians.”
While not enough representatives have endorsed the bill to gain a hearing in the House, McCollum reported that “there is also a group emerging that is becoming a little uncomfortable as they are learning about some of the steps that the Israeli government is taking with the incarceration of these children and with the demolition of homes and what is also going on with a two-tier system of citizenship between Israelis and Arab Israelis in Israel itself. But they’re not yet willing to change the status quo.” To church leaders she said, “That’s where your work comes in.”
The Tuesday webinar was hosted by Churches for Middle East Peace , a coalition of more than thirty Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant and Evangelical traditions, and the Faith Forum for Middle East Policy, “a network of Christian denominations and organizations working for a just peace in the Middle East.”
Expressing their concern for the Holy Land, faith leaders wrote in their letter, “The violations of rights raised in HR 2590 are of grave concern. As documented by numerous human rights organizations, since the year 2000 an estimated 13,000 Palestinian children between the ages of 12 and 17 have been detained, prosecuted, and incarcerated by the Israeli military in the occupied West Bank. Often dragged from their homes in the middle of the night by armed soldiers, they suffer physical and emotional violence and frequently face verbal abuse, humiliation, and intimidation.”
“In our churches and communities across the country,” the letter continues, “our members are increasingly concerned about the deteriorating conditions for Palestinians who continue to live under a brutal military occupation. We are committed to speaking out until the conditions on the ground contribute to the flourishing of all Palestinian and Israeli lives.”
Representative McCollum thanked the many churches and human rights groups that have urged support of HR2590. She said, “This bill would not have been written had it not been for the support of Israeli human rights groups, human rights groups and churches and synagogues and mosques and other people of great faith here in the United States. It is a work that we do here at home and with Palestinians and also Israelis.”
I thank God for Betty McCollum. When the real history of this period is finally written she will emerge as a true hero. The bulk of today’s Congress will live on in shame-drenched infamy.
It takes a lot of courage and passion for leaders like Betty McCollum, to speak up, stand up, and show support, for the Palestinian people. It is well known that people who do so, become the target of vicious attacks, accusations of being anti-semitic, and threats, that come from the occupier’s lobbies, apologists, and servants, who on cue come out and say they are protecting and supporting a (pretend) victim, and how dare anyone pick on defenseless Israel.
Such a shameless bunch of hypocrites.
In America, no one can criticize America’s no. 1 charity case, bring focus on its never ending human rights abuses, or even misspeak about the Holocaust. The zionist attack machine kicks in and gets in high gear. Oy vey! It gets very nasty and ugly.
So good for Congresswoman Betty McCollum and good luck to her, the one consistent supporter of human rights for the Palestinian people. The question is who else will find their courage and will support her in Congress?