Palestinian Children and Failies Act

In Solidarity,
Peace Action New York State
 
TAKE ACTION NOW!

We are unfortunately continuing to lend support for the Israeli government's violence and oppression of Palestinians through our tax dollars. The unconditional support of Israel by the United States, which includes $3.8 billion of our taxpayer dollars per year, reinforces a militaristic policy that includes annexation, evictions, home demolitions, and the detention and torture of Palestinians — even young children.

Now we have a chance to help change this. Congresswoman Betty McCollum (D-MN) and 16 other representatives recently re-introduced the Palestinian Children and Families Act (H.R. 3103). This historic bill would help curtail any U.S. military funding to Israel that pays for the military detention of Palestinian children, the demolition of Palestinian homes, or the annexation of Palestinian land.

Take a quick moment to urge your representative to become a co-sponsor!

(And, if you are in Rep. Jamaal Bowman or Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's district, please thank them for already being original co-sponsors!)

https://click.everyaction.com/k/65058245/412187242/-2040536341

Have you no shame?

Law students graduating from CUNY Law School enter a hostile world. The curriculum is all about standing up for the poor and oppressed in society, using one's legal skills to speak truth to power.

But the powerful in our society have learned to use their influence and money  to make such goals difficult indeed. Our representatives in government rarely stand up for the powerless. Our media has no interest in home grown oppression. And our colleges have become dependent on the very rich to fund them. There is hardly room for idealism in the neoliberal world we have created.

So when a young CUNY graduate has the courage to give a speech about the victims no one wants to hear about, all hell breaks loose. Five million Palestinians suffer under a ruthless apartheid occupation, and our country pays for the whole human rights catastrophe. But that subject is taboo, especially in the minds of all the politicians who are generously funded by the Israel Lobby. For ours is a democracy hanging by a thread. The very richest get to speak for us all. How else to explain the obscene disparity between the billionaires and everyone else?

Maybe Fatima Mohammed's commencement address to her class will be the tipping point. Perhaps the American people will finally ask the right question of the Israel Lobby: "Have you no shame?" 

Fred Nagel

I'm a U.S. Army veteran (101st Airborne) and I am Jewish

 

Dear Marc Molinaro, 

I'm a U.S. Army veteran (101st Airborne) and I am Jewish. I have been to the West Bank in Palestine twice, with other veterans, including IDF veterans. We have seen with our own eyes and experienced with our bodies just some of the horrors that Palestinian children and their families experience under Israeli occupation. I knew people who fought against the Nazis in WWII and also  Holocaust survivors who are equally appalled at what the Israeli's are doing – with support from  the U.S. government! 

AIPAC, the lobby that encourages support for what most of the world sees as a blatant apartheid state must be resisted. Palestinian children must be allowed to live without the fear of Israeli soldiers breaking down their family doors and dragging them off in the middle of the night or of having their homes bulldozed, or being beaten, imprisoned or killed.  

I am writing as a constituent and as a member of Jewish Voice for Peace Action to urge you to become a cosponsor of Congresswoman McCollum’s Defending the Human Rights of Palestinian Children and Families Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act.

This critically important legislation would ensure U.S. taxpayer funds are not used by the Israeli government to detain and torture Palestinian children, steal and destroy Palestinian homes and property, or further annex Palestinian land. 

The bill could not come at a more critical moment. At the end of 2022, Israelis elected the most far-right and extremist government in the country’s history. Israel’s systemic violence and apartheid rule has denied Palestinians their human rights for decades, and it has only grown worse under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government. 

The U.S. sends $3.8 billion in military funding to Israel every single year and it is long past time for Congress to take action to prevent this funding from supporting human rights violations against Palestinians. 

I urge you to become a cosponsor of this important legislation.

Thank you.

Tarak Kauff
NYC Veterans For Peace