During a weekly Friday afternoon protest several years ago in Philadelphia, a woman claiming to speak for the Palestinians was dismissive of children attacking Israeli troops on the West Bank.
As we spoke in front of the now-closed Israeli consulate at 19th Street and JFK Boulevard, she claimed the children were not violent and, after raising a few more points, added something like, “They’re just throwing stones.”
I wondered: Did she mean rocks that could split open a person’s skull?
Fast-forward to May 1, as Betsy McCollum told her 434 colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives: “Omar was arrested by Israeli soldiers last December as he played in front of his house because ‘he threw pebbles at birds that were chirping in the trees.’”
Pebbles? Did these Israeli soldiers just happen to pass through and come between the pebbles and these chirping birds?
To protect these little darlings, McCollum introduced H.R. 4391 which – as her own news release proclaims – would prevent our “tax dollars from supporting the Israeli military’s ongoing detention and mistreatment of Palestinian children…10,000 Palestinian children have been detained by Israeli security forces and prosecuted in the Israeli military court system since 2000.”
What is she talking about? There is no clarification in McCollum’s statements and even in news stories reporting on the legislation. I assumed she was referring to young protesters who were arrested for violent behavior, and that turns out to be the case.
Citing independent monitors, McCollum’s news release states, “these children are subject to abuse and, in some cases, torture…chokeholds, beatings and coercive interrogation on children between the ages of 11 and 15.” In her statement in the House chamber, McCollum added, “The perpetrator of this system of child abuse is the Government of Israel and its military, police, and intelligence apparatus occupying the Palestinian West Bank.”
McCollum, who is Catholic, represents St. Paul, Minesota., which is adjacent to Ilhan Omar’s district that spans Minneapolis and some of its suburbs. Omar, a Muslim, has been accused of anti-Semitism because of her ongoing bashing of Israel and American Jews. The bill’s title is a mouthful – “Promoting Human Rights by Ending Israeli Military Detention of Palestinian Act.”
The bill “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,” according to the release.
McCollum’s bill has as much chance of passage in Congress as, well, achieving peace in the Middle East in the foreseeable future. It flopped when she introduced a similar bill two years ago. Meanwhile, a Jerusalem think tank points to some facts that could get in the way of rotten legislation. In a point-by-point response, the center refers to attacks far more serious than tossing “stones” and “pebbles.”
“The bill ignores the context of Palestinian minors in terrorism and acts of violence against Israeli civilians,” states an analysis prepared by the Center for Near East Policy Research. “It similarly makes no mention of mitigating the threat of recruitment and use of Palestinian minors by terrorist organizations – itself a grave violation of international law.”
It is well documented that many Palestinian children hurl rocks at Israeli soldiers – the weapon of choice inspired by David’s biblical victory over Goliath. If a group of youths threw rocks at police officers in Philly or any American city, those delinquents would be hauled before a judge in juvenile court.
“McCollum ignores violence by Palestinian minors,” the center writes. “While noting an increase in the arrest of Palestinian minors in recent years, the bill ignores the context of a sharp rise in Palestinian terrorism beginning in 2015 and the increasing use of minors by terror groups to carry out these attacks.”
Citing a State Department report from 2018, the analysis notes, “On May 14, 2018, Islamic Jihad announced the deaths of three of its members, killed in clashes with Israeli forces on the Gaza border, including a 17-year-old. On July 2018, 17-year-old Tareq Yousef stabbed Yotam Ovaida to death injured two additional Israeli civilians, in an attack on the West Bank community of Adam. On Sept. 16, 2018, 17-year-old Khalil Jabarin stabbed U.S. citizen Ari Fuld to death at a shopping center in the West Bank.”
The center also pointed to “the involvement of nearly 15 Palestinian minors in stabbings, car rammings, firebomb throwing and engaging in violent clashes.”
As for a passage alleging mistreatment and torture in Israeli prisons, the center’s analysis states: “This line is lifted nearly verbatim from DCI-P’s submission to the committee. None of the children, nor their lawyers, alleged to have been subject to such treatment by DCI-P, alerted authorities, filed complaints, or raised these issues during their court proceedings.”
The analysis adds, “The bill is based largely on the lobbying efforts and accusations of Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCI-P), which is closely tied to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S., E.U., Canada and Israel.”
The committee in question is the 2013 U.N. Committee on the Rights of Children.
While the Israeli consulate in Philadelphia closed nearly three years ago, I could not forget when the woman complained outside the consulate about Palestinian children being jailed by Israel. I figured that she omitted important details when she said they did nothing wrong. When she mentioned the children were only throwing stones, I knew she was rationalizing.
I was tempted to suggest that someone throw stones at her. Never would she would call the police. She was being struck by stones. Or was it pebbles?
Republished from San Diego Jewish World