Massachusetts Peace Action is gathering signatures for a group letter to each Massachusetts member of Congress, asking that they cosponsor Betty McCollum’s Promoting Human Rights by Ending Israeli Military Detention of Palestinian Children Act, H.R. 4391. The bill has 19 cosponsors in addition to its author – including only Rep. Jim McGovern from Massachusetts (as of January 2018). We can do better than that!
Here’s the letter. Please click here (http://bit.ly/israel-child-detention-letter) to sign the letter, and please circulate as widely as you can to get additional signatures. You can also submit signatures to Jeff Klein, Chair of Mass. Peace Action’s Palestine/Israel Working Group, at jjk123@comcast.net.
Dear Rep. _________________,
We are writing as your constituents to ask that you co-sponsor H.R. 4391, Promoting Human Rights by Ending Israeli Military Detention of Palestinian Children Act, introduced by Rep. Betty McCollum (D_MN).
Given that the Israeli government receives billions of dollars in assistance from the United States, Congress must work to ensure that American taxpayer dollars never support the Israeli military’s detention or abuse of Palestinian children. Congresswoman McCollum’s legislation requires that the Secretary of State certify that American funds do not support Israel’s military detention, interrogation, abuse, or ill-treatment of Palestinian children. (See this Defense of Children International report).
Although this bill addresses just one aspect of the highly precarious human rights situation of Palestinians under Israeli occupation, it is important that progressive Members of Congress at least take a stand in urgent defense of Palestinian children.
Please add your name as a cosponsor to H.R. 4391 and let us know your response to this request.
Respectfully,
This issue is more timely than ever, given the recent high-profile detention of Palestinian teenager Ahed Tamimi from the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh. Fourteen Palestinian boys and girls under the age of 18 were shot dead by Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank and Gaza Strip during the year and many more were wounded.
Feel free to contact Jeff Klein, if you need more info or if anything about this effort needs clarifying.