J Street and Americans for Peace Now on Wednesday added their names to a list of some 20 vehemently anti-Israel groups, including mainstays in the Palestinian rights movement like the Adalah Justice Project, Jewish Voice for Peace Action, and Justice Democrats who endorsed a bill introduced by Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn) titled “Defending the Human Rights of Palestinian Children and Families Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act.”
According to her press release, McCollum’s legislation “prohibits Israel from using US taxpayer dollars in the Occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem for the military detention, abuse, or ill-treatment of Palestinian children in Israeli military detention; to support the seizure and destruction of Palestinian property and homes in violation of international humanitarian law; or, to extend any assistance or support for Israel’s unilateral annexation of Palestinian territory in violation of international humanitarian law.”
The bill’s cosponsors include the usual suspects: Ilhan Omar (MN-05), Rashida Tlaib (MI-13), Cori Bush (MO-01), Jamaal Bowman (NY-16), Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), and, of course, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14).
The list of endorsing organizations is also familiar from their years of assault on US-Israel relations, regardless of which party occupies the White House: Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Adalah Justice Project, American Muslims for Palestine, Arab American Institute, Arab Resource & Organizing Center (AROC), Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Christian Jewish Allies for a Just Peace in Israel/Palestine, Churches for Middle East Peace, Coalition of Palestinian American Organizations, CODEPINK, DSA BDS and Palestine Solidarity Working Group, The Episcopal Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Institute for Policy Studies – New Internationalism Project, Israel Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (USA), Justice Democrats, Movement for Black Lives, National Council of Churches USA, National Lawyers Guild, National Union of Palestinian Youth, New Generation for Palestine, Norwegian Refugee Council, Palestine American League, Palestinian Christian Alliance for Peace, Palestine Legal, Presbyterian Church (USA), Progressive Democrats of America, Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice, Unitarian Universalists for Justice in the Middle East, United Church of Christ, United Church of Christ Palestine Israel Network, United Methodists for Kairos Response, United We Dream Network, US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR), US Palestinian Council, and the Working Families Party.
IfNotNow, Jewish Voice for Peace Action, and Jews for Racial & Economic Justice were three anti-Israel Jewish groups that endorsed the legislation, and now they have been joined by two groups who claim to support Israel: J Street and Americans for Peace Now.
In addition to its outrageous claims about Israeli abuse of PA Arab children—which has been added to anti-Semitic classic about Jews murdering gentile children to use their blood in baking Matzos—the McCollum bill also misrepresents the legal realities in Judea and Samaria, which can be verified by reading a newspaper.
For example, the bill asserts that “in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, there are two separate and unequal legal systems, with Israeli military law imposed on Palestinians and Israeli civilian law applied to Israeli settlers.” The fact is there is no such entity as the “Israeli-occupied West Bank.” Since 1994, Judea and Samaria are divided into three areas, one under the Palestinian Authority’s control, one under Israeli control, and one where they share civilian and military control.
The bill asserts, relying on B’Tselem, that “the Government of Israel and its military detains around 500 to 700 Palestinian children between the ages of 12 and 17 each year and prosecutes them before a military court system that lacks basic and fundamental guarantees of due process in violation of international standards.” But the fact is that IDF courts are renowned for their adherence to due process, and in many cases err on the side of the terrorist defendant, such as in that notorious verdict that found that since the blade used by a terrorist didn’t reach deep enough in the flesh of his Israeli woman victim, he could not be found guilty of attempted murder.
And, of course, there’s this bit of distortion: “Israel’s drive to perpetuate its control over the occupied West Bank results in other serious violations of international law, including the unlawful demolition of Palestinian homes and the forcible transfer of Palestinian civilians.” This concerns the demolition of the homes of terrorists who murdered Jewish victims, and Israeli courts have gone out of their way to limit what section of those homes is permitted to be demolished or sealed, out of concern to the murderer’s family members. The “forcible transfer” refers to Arab squatters who have resided in Jewish homes in eastern Jerusalem since the time their Jewish owners had been driven out by Arab pogroms or by the Jordanian Legion.
It’s not likely that the Democratic leadership will embrace this bill, but by endorsing it J Street and Americans for Peace Now have marked themselves as Israel haters, as despicable as IfNotNow, Jewish Voice for Peace Action.
Know thy enemy.