On November 12, U.S. Representative Betty McCollum gave a speech to the United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. “It is my hope that Parliamentarians from across the globe will find common purpose and work together in solidarity with the Palestinian people,” McCollum said.

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.

Members of Jewish Voice for Peace, American Friends Service Committee, and other constituents occupied the office of Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL 9th District) and called on her to support a congressional bill that promotes human rights for children in Palestine. The protesters read a list of 271 Palestinian children who have been arrested and detained by the Israeli military, as well as a list of the 8 children killed in Israel’s recent attack on Gaza.