Defense for Children International – Palestine is calling on the Israeli government to release all Palestinian child detainees amid the COVID-19 crisis.
The Shift is a weekly politics newsletter from Michael Arria taking you to the front…
Brad Parker explains, “Everybody can understand the physical violence against a child. I think that’s a universal red line that exists for most people. And in that, I think was the overarching sort of consideration in shaping the campaign. We wanted to have something that was really basic, straightforward, accessible, relatable so that it expanded the movement and also complemented the other things that were happening.”
Minnesota Rep. Betty McCollum has put out a statement that refers to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) as a “hate group.” McCollum’s comments come just days after AIPAC pulled and apologized for Facebook ads that targeted pro-Palestine lawmakers and implied they were worse than the terrorist group ISIS.
Rep. Salud Carbajal won’t cosponsor a bill promoting human rights for Palestinian children because it includes “older youth.”
Jennifer Bing has been involved in Palestine solidarity activism since the early 1980s and has been one of the driving forces behind the No Way to Treat a Child campaign that led to Rep. Betty McCollum’s historic bill to the stop the detention of Palestinian children. Bing spoke with Mondoweiss’ Michael Arria about how her feelings on pushing lawmakers has changed, how McCollum became an unlikely advocate for the cause, and what comes next.
Executive Director of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association Rabbi Elyse Wechtermanm tells Mondoweiss, “Our members have been working hard against child detention and family separation on the border here in the United States. When the issue of child incarceration, torture and detention by the Israeli military was brought to our attention, we felt we could not ignore it – this is part of what it means to fight for justice locally and globally.”
Israel arrested 69 children last month, do Democrats care?
Jewish activists are pressuring lawmakers to support a bill that bars Israel from detaining children with U.S. funds. “You said separating families does not protect U.S. security. That is also true in Israel at this moment and it’s our money that is paying for the Israeli military in very high amounts,” an activist challenged MA Rep. Stephen Lynch.
During a appearance on CBS, Bernie Sanders implied that military aid to Israel might only come with conditions if he’s elected president. Combined with recent comments by Pete Buttigieg, and legislation introduced by Betty McCollum, Sanders’ comments are the latest indication that there may be a shift in how Democrats are viewing Israel heading into the 2020 election.