Defending the Human Rights of Palestinian Children and Families Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act
This bill limits U.S. assistance to Israel and establishes reporting requirements related to Israel's activities in the West Bank and its expenditures for offshore procurement. (Offshore procurement involves spending U.S. security assistance from the Foreign Military Financing program on Israeli-origin rather than U.S.-origin defense articles.)
Specifically, the bill prohibits the use of any funds that are made available for assistance to Israel to support (1) military detention, interrogation, abuse, or ill treatment of Palestinian children; (2) seizure, appropriation, or destruction of Palestinian property and forcible transfer of civilians in the Israeli-controlled West Bank; or (3) certain activities to facilitate unilateral annexation by Israel of West Bank territory. The Department of State must report on the nature and extent of such activities carried out by Israel.
Further, the Government Accountability Office must submit to Congress a report on related topics, such as (1) identifying specific programs and items to which funds for offshore procurement in Israel have been allocated, (2) identifying all end-use monitoring to which Israel is subject with respect to U.S.-origin defense articles, and (3) assessing the extent to which offshore procurement funds have supported illegal Israeli settlement activity in the occupied West Bank.
[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3103 Introduced in House (IH)]
<DOC>
118th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 3103
To promote and protect the human rights of Palestinians living under
Israeli military occupation, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
May 5, 2023
Ms. McCollum (for herself, Mr. Beyer, Ms. Pressley, Ms. Tlaib, Mr.
Payne, Mrs. Watson Coleman, Ms. Omar, Mr. Grijalva, Mr. Bowman, Mr.
Pocan, Ms. Bush, Ms. Jayapal, Mr. Garcia of Illinois, Ms. Ocasio-
Cortez, Ms. Lee of California, Ms. Lee of Pennsylvania, and Mr. Evans)
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on
Foreign Affairs
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To promote and protect the human rights of Palestinians living under
Israeli military occupation, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Defending the Human Rights of
Palestinian Children and Families Living Under Israeli Military
Occupation Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) Approximately 3,100,000 Palestinians live in the West
Bank, of which around 42 percent are children under the age of
18 who have lived their entire lives under Israeli military
control.
(2) 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.
(3) Children are entitled to special protections and due
process rights under international human rights law and
international humanitarian law.
(4) Israel has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the
Child, which states--
(A) in article 37(a), that ``no child shall be
subject to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment'';
(B) in article 37(b), that the arrest, detention or
imprisonment of a child ``shall be used only as a
measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate
period of time'';
(C) in article 37(c), that ``every child deprived
of liberty shall be treated with humanity and respect
for the inherent dignity of the human person, and in a
manner which takes into account the needs of persons of
his or her age''; and
(D) in article 37(d), that ``[e]very child deprived
of his or her liberty shall have the right to prompt
access to legal and other appropriate assistance, as
well as the right to challenge the legality of the
deprivation of his or her liberty before a court or
other competent, independent and impartial authority,
and to a prompt decision on any such action''.
(5) 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.
(6) Israeli security forces detain children under the age
of 12 for interrogation for extended periods of time even
though the prosecution of children under 12 is prohibited by
Israeli military law.
(7) Save the Children released a report in 2020 based on a
survey of more than 470 children detained by Israeli forces in
the West Bank that found ``[a] majority reported they had
endured a distressing or violent arrest or detention, in most
cases at night; a coercive interrogation environment; physical
and emotional abuse in detention; and a denial of essential
services including an adequate education--all of which
constitute a breach of their rights enshrined in
international.''.
(8) The Israeli human rights organization HaMoked: Center
for the Defence of the Individual issued a report in October
2020 examining night arrests of Palestinian children by Israeli
forces in the West Bank finding that Israeli authorities
continue ``to send soldiers to arrest Palestinian teenage boys
at night as a measure of first resort for bringing them in for
interrogation. This injurious, traumatic practice leaves the
teenagers broken in body and soul, while thwarting the
possibility of a fair interrogation and almost guaranteeing a
conviction.'' In January 2023, new data compiled by HaMoked
showed ``show that in 2022, Israel continued and even
exacerbated its unlawful practice of night arrests of
children'' concluding that ``the majority of these arrests are
nothing short of arbitrary arrests.''.
(9) The Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem issued a
report in 2018 describing the treatment of Palestinian children
under Israeli military occupation: ``Every year, hundreds of
Palestinian minors undergo the same scenario. Israeli security
forces pick them up on the street or at home in the middle of
the night, then handcuff and blindfold them and transport them
to interrogation, often subjecting them to violence en route.
Exhausted and scared--some having spent a long time in transit,
some having been roused from sleep, some having had nothing to
eat or drink for hours--the minors are then interrogated. They
are completely alone in there, cut off from the world, without
any adult they know and trust by their side, and without having
been given a chance to consult with a lawyer before the
interrogation. The interrogation itself often involves threats,
yelling, verbal abuse and sometimes physical violence. Its sole
purpose is to get the minors to confess or provide information
about others.''.
(10) The 2016 Annual Report on Human Rights Practices of
the State Department noted the renewed use of ``administrative
detention'' against Palestinians, including children, a
practice in which a detainee may be imprisoned indefinitely,
without charge or trial, by the order of a military commander
or other government official.
(11) The nongovernmental organization Defense for Children
International-Palestine (DCIP) documented 60 Palestinian
children detained and placed in administrative detention, or
detention without charge or trial, since Israel renewed the
practice against minors in October 2015.
(12) DCIP collected affidavits from 766 West Bank children
who were detained by Israeli forces from the West Bank between
2016 and 2022, and concluded that--
(A) 75 percent of the children endured physical
violence following arrest;
(B) under Israeli military law, children do not
have the right to a lawyer during interrogation;
(C) 97 percent of the children did not have a
parent present during their interrogation;
(D) 66 percent of the children were not properly
informed of their rights by Israeli police;
(E) 86 percent of children were not informed of the
reason for arrest;
(F) 59 percent of children were arrested from their
homes during nighttime military incursions;
(G) interrogators used stress positions, threats of
violence, and isolation to coerce confessions from
detained children; and
(H) 178 children were held in pre-trial, pre-charge
isolation for interrogation purposes for an average
period of 16.5 days.
(13) Amendments to Israeli military law concerning the
detention of Palestinian children have had little or no impact
on the treatment of children during the first 24 to 48 hours
after an arrest, when the majority of their ill treatment
occurs.
(14) 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.
(15) The destruction of property in an occupied territory
is prohibited under international humanitarian law, unless
absolutely necessary for military operations.
(16) Palestinian properties are subject to demolition or
confiscation as part of Israeli-imposed planning and zoning
regimes in Area C and East Jerusalem and other parts of the
West Bank, and subject to punitive demolition following an
incident of violence against Israeli military and police
forces, settlers, or other civilians.
(17) Palestinians are required to obtain Israeli-issued
building permits and the lack of permits is typically cited as
the reason for demolitions or confiscations, even though, due
to the restrictive and discriminatory Israeli planning regime,
Palestinians are overwhelmingly denied permits and therefore
forced to build without the necessary permits.
(18) Between 2016 to 2020, 99.1 percent of the 2,550
building permit applications that were submitted by
Palestinians in Area C were rejected, with only 24 applications
approved.
(19) Palestinians are allowed to build in less than one
percent of Area C and in only about 15 percent of East
Jerusalem.
(20) Palestinian homes and structures located in Area C and
East Jerusalem and other parts of the West Bank are under
constant threat of demolition from the moment construction
begins and are often demolished with little notice.
(21) The United Nations Office for the Coordination for
Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported between April 15, 2021,
and March 30, 2023, Israeli authorities demolished or seized
1,840 Palestinian structures across the West Bank, including
East Jerusalem, resulting in the displacement of 2,170 people,
including 1,104 Palestinian children.
(22) OCHA noted that one of the major trends observed in
2020 was the increased use of military orders and other
legislation, preventing or limiting the ability of Palestinians
to legally challenge the targeting of their homes and sources
of livelihood in Israeli courts.
(23) In 2018, Israeli forces issued Military Order 1797
that expedites the demolition of new structures that do not
have a permit, authorizing the demolition within 96 hours of
delivering a demolition order.
(24) OCHA reported in March 2023 that 58 schools in the
West Bank, which are attended by 6,500 children, are subject to
demolition orders issued by Israeli authorities.
(25) Demolitions clearly and deliberately undermine the
prospects for a just and lasting peace between Israel and the
Palestinians and create oppressive conditions that leave
Palestinians with no other choice than to leave their homes and
lands.
(26) Punitive demolitions function as an act of collective
punishment against the families of suspects or perpetrators and
create insecurity in the surrounding communities. Though
Israeli authorities maintain that punitive demolitions are a
means of achieving security, Israel does not demolish the homes
of Israelis who have committed crimes against Palestinians as
part of its policy.
(27) The restrictive and discriminatory Israeli planning
regime undermines rights and guarantees in international human
rights law and international humanitarian law and facilitates
unlawful acts and policies, including destruction of property
and forcible transfer of civilians, expropriation of land and
natural resources, illegal settlement expansion, and further
annexation of Palestinian land.
(28) Jewish-only settlements established by the Government
of Israel in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem,
have no legal validity and constitute a flagrant violation
under international law and a major obstacle to the achievement
of a just and lasting peace between Israel and the
Palestinians.
(29) Unilateral annexation of any part of the occupied West
Bank by the Government of Israel is a flagrant violation of
international law and a prohibited act of aggression under
Article 2(4) of the United Nations Charter.
(30) Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of United
States foreign assistance since World War II, receiving from
the United States $158,000,000,000 (current, or noninflation-
adjusted, dollars) in bilateral assistance and missile defense
funding.
(31) In 2016, the United States and Israeli governments
signed a new 10-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on
military assistance, covering fiscal year 2019 to fiscal year
2028.
(32) Under the terms of the MOU, the United States pledges
to provide $38,000,000,000 in military assistance
($33,000,000,000 in Foreign Military Financing grants plus
$5,000,000,000 in missile defense appropriations) to Israel,
replacing a previous $30,000,000,000, 10-year agreement that
ran through fiscal year 2018.
(33) The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 (Public Law
117-328), provides Israel with $3,300,000,000 in Foreign
Military Financing (FMF), including $775,300,000 million
designated specifically for procurements in Israel, commonly
referred to as ``offshore procurements'', and $500,000,000 in
missile defense funding.
(34) The sale and export of United States-origin defense
articles and defense services to foreign countries are governed
by an extensive set of laws, regulations, policies, and
procedures, including authorizations and reporting requirements
in both the National Defense Authorization Acts and in the
State Department, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs
Appropriations Acts.
(35) Congress has authorized sales to the Government of
Israel under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C.
2151, et seq.) and the Arms Export Control Act of 1976 (22
U.S.C. 2751, et seq.).
(36) The Arms Export Control Act of 1976 (22 U.S.C. 271, et
seq.) generally prohibits foreign countries from using funds
made available under the Act for procurement outside the United
States. However, each year since 1991, varying amounts of FMF
grants have been designated for offshore procurements in
Israel.
(37) In 1991, the Government Accountability Office,
formerly the General Accounting Office, issued a report to the
Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate examining United
States military funding to Israel, which specifically audited
Israel's expenditures for offshore procurements and assessed
whether the executive branch had complied with legislative
requirements.
SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS.
It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) actions by the Government of Israel in the occupied
West Bank, including the detention and prosecution of
Palestinian children in the Israeli military court system, the
seizure, appropriation, and destruction of Palestinian property
and forcible transfer of civilians, and further annexation of
Palestinian land in violation of international law and
internationally recognized standards of human rights--
(A) are contrary to the values of the American
people and the efforts of the United States to support
self-determination, human rights, and dignity for both
Palestinians and Israelis; and
(B) undermine efforts by the United States to
achieve a just and lasting peace between Israel and the
Palestinians;
(2) promoting human rights, human dignity, and democratic
rights for all Palestinians and Israelis are foreign policy
priorities of the United States; and
(3) the United States rejects any undemocratic system or
act of aggression in which Israel unilaterally exercises
permanent rule over a Palestinian people denied self-
determination and human rights.
SEC. 4. STATEMENT OF POLICY.
It is the policy of the United States not to support actions by the
Government of Israel involving--
(1) the military detention of Palestinian children in
violation of international law;
(2) the seizure, appropriation, and destruction of
Palestinian property or the forcible transfer of civilians in
the occupied West Bank in violation of international law; or
(3) further annexation of Palestinian land and property in
violation of international law.
SEC. 5. LIMITATION ON ASSISTANCE.
(a) Prohibition.--Notwithstanding any other provision of law, none
of the funds authorized to be appropriated or otherwise made available
for assistance to the Government of Israel may be obligated or expended
for any of the following:
(1) Supporting the military detention, interrogation,
abuse, or ill treatment of Palestinian children in violation of
international humanitarian law or to support the use against
Palestinian children of any of the following practices:
(A) Torture or cruel, inhumane, or degrading
treatment.
(B) Physical violence, including restraint in
stress positions.
(C) Hooding, sensory deprivation, death threats, or
other forms of psychological abuse.
(D) Incommunicado detention or solitary
confinement.
(E) Administrative detention, or imprisonment
without charge or trial, as described in section 2(10).
(F) Arbitrary detention.
(G) Denial of access to parents or legal counsel
during interrogations.
(H) Confessions obtained by force or coercion.
(2) Supporting the seizure, appropriation, or destruction
of Palestinian property and forcible transfer of civilians in
the Israeli-controlled and occupied West Bank in violation of
international humanitarian law.
(3) Deploying, or supporting the deployment of, personnel,
training, services, lethal materials, equipment, facilities,
logistics, transportation, or any other activity to territory
in the occupied West Bank to facilitate or support further
unilateral annexation by Israel of such territory in violation
of international humanitarian law.
(b) Certification.--Not later than September 30, 2023, and annually
thereafter, the Secretary of State shall submit to the Committee on
Appropriations and the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of
Representatives and the Committee on Appropriations and the Committee
on Foreign Relations of the Senate one of the following with respect to
the preceding fiscal year--
(1) a certification that none of the funds obligated or
expended in the previous fiscal year for assistance to the
Government of Israel have been used by such Government to
support personnel, training, lethal materials, equipment,
facilities, logistics, transportation, or any other activity
that supports or is associated with any of the activities
prohibited under subsection (a); or
(2) a certification that funds obligated or expended in the
previous fiscal year have supported or been associated with one
or more activities prohibited under subsection (a), along with
a report describing in detail the amount of such funds used by
the Government of Israel in violation of such subsection and
each activity supported by such funds.
SEC. 6. OVERSIGHT AND ADDITIONAL REPORTING.
The Secretary of State shall include, in each report required under
section 116 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151n)--
(1) a description of the nature and extent of detention,
interrogation, abuse, or ill treatment of Palestinian children
by Israeli military forces or police in violation of
international humanitarian law;
(2) a description of the nature and extent of the seizure,
appropriation, or destruction of Palestinian property in the
Israeli-controlled and occupied West Bank by Israeli
authorities in violation of international humanitarian law; and
(3) a description of the nature and extent of Israeli
settlement activities, including an assessment of the
compliance of the Government of Israel with United Nations
Security Council Resolution 2334 (2016).
SEC. 7. GAO REPORT ON ISRAEL'S EXPENDITURES FOR OFFSHORE PROCUREMENT.
Not later than September 30, 2023, and annually thereafter, the
Comptroller General of the United States shall prepare and submit to
Congress a report that--
(1) identifies the specific programs and items funds for
offshore procurement in Israel have been allocated to,
including specific armed forces branches, units, and
contractors;
(2) assesses executive branch compliance with legislative
requirements governing offshore procurements in Israel;
(3) identifies, in detail, all end-use monitoring the
Government of Israel is subject to with respect to United
States-origin defense articles; and
(4) analyzes the effects of offshore procurements on
Israel's military budget and domestic economy since 1991,
including an assessment of the manner and extent to which these
funds have directly or indirectly supported illegal Israeli
settlement activity in the occupied West Bank.
<all>
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
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