At the request of Democratic leaders, President
Trump ordered last week that US flags on DC federal buildings fly at half-staff
“in memory of the Americans we have lost to the Coronavirus.” Justice advocates
also grieve at the persistence of pro-Israel legislation in Congress.
In the chaos that is the US – with
coronavirus, racial tension, deep divisions, highly contested elections – Israel
continues to hold sway over Capitol Hill. Congress members toil unwaveringly to
win massive military aid money and special treats for the Jewish State with 68
pieces of legislation focused on Israel.
by Kathryn Shihadah
Back in January 2019, immediately
after the swearing-in ceremony for the new Congress, advocacy for Israel began.
On that first day, the Senate introduced a pro-Israel bill; the House
introduced 3. By the end of 2019, lawmakers had presented over
50 pieces of
legislation favoring Israel.
2020 pro-Israel bills have been
arriving at a somewhat slower pace (as of this writing, the number stands at
18), but most of last year’s bills are still in circulation. At the end of this
year, every bill that has not become law will die. The process starts over with
the new Congress in January 2021.
Especially given this year’s massive
financial disruption from COVID-19, Americans should be aware of our country’s lavish
spending habits toward Israel – and not only because we need to be generally more frugal. Israel has
a long, ugly record of human rights violations, the likes of which have been chronicled in detail by numerous human rights
organizations.
Below is a description of pro-Israel
bills that have been introduced in Congress in 2020 (grouped by subject),
followed by a listing of bills that support justice for Palestinians (as of
this writing, there is only one).
For the list of 50+ pro-Israel bills
(and 2 that advocate for Palestinians) presented in 2019, please go here.
Pro-Israel
legislation: military aid
S.3176 – “US-Israel
Security Assistance Authorization Act of 2020” (To amend the Foreign Assistance
Act of 1961 and the US-Israel Strategic Partnership Act of 2014 to make
improvements to certain defense and security assistance provisions and to
authorize the appropriations of funds to Israel, and for other purposes).
This is the Senate version of House
bill H.R.1837, which was passed last July (read
about it here). The bill outlines the US promise
to give Israel a minimum of $3.8 billion a year for the next ten years. In
addition, it would give the President authority to provide Israel with
unlimited weaponry and assistance without prior authorization from Congress.
These bills contradict the Leahy
Laws, which clearly state that, in the words of principal sponsor Sen. Patrick
Leahy (D-VT), “when credible evidence of human rights violations exists, US aid
must stop.” (For more on the Leahy Laws, read this.)
S.3176 passed the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee on May 21, using several unscrupulous procedures. As Alison
Weir reports,
First, Senate Committee Chairman Jim Risch
(R-Idaho) refused to allow a livestream of the meeting, despite the fact
that the Senate Rules panel had recommended that extra efforts be taken to
ensure public transparency while the Capitol is closed to the public and the
presence of reporters is severely limited. The Senate’s Press Gallery Standing
Committee of Correspondents had objected strongly to Risch’s decision.
Second, the bill was passed without being
named, debated, or even discussed, even though it would set into law the largest such aid package in U.S.
history. There has been no US mention of the bill by US mainstream media.
Notably, a “manager’s amendment” to
S.3176 replaced the entire content of the original
bill with new text – and this text was not made public until after the
conclusion of the hearing.
This pro-Israel bill also provides
millions in new funding for various additional programs and programs benefiting
Israel. As analyst Lara Friedman reports, the bill authorizes “funding for
programs designed to make enhanced/expanded US-Israel cooperation part of the
DNA of more and more U.S. government agencies.” It also establishes programs
“that in effect recruit U.S. agencies/funding to the cause of expanding Israel’s
relations and influence in the region (i.e., open normalization by Arab states)
and around the world.”
There are a number of additional
perks, including requiring NASA to work with the Israeli Space Agency, despite
accusations of Israeli espionage.
As the US grapples with its
Covid-induced economic devastation, Israel’s $3.8 billion aid package is
expected to remain intact – this even as Israel actively removes Palestinians’ protections from the virus.
Introduced Jan. 9 by Sen. Marco
Rubio (R-FL). Cosponsors to date: D – 19, R – 19.
Pro-Israel
legislation: Israeli-exceptionalism bills
H.R.5595 – the “Israel Anti-Boycott Act” (To impose additional prohibitions
relating to foreign boycotts under Export Control Reform Act of 2018, and for
other purposes).
H.R.5595 is the latest in a string
of pro-Israel bills that many experts consider a violation of Americans’ right to free speech.
The bill would halt attempts to
disrupt businesses that partner with illegal Israeli settlements. This same
nonviolent strategy was instrumental in bringing down apartheid in South
Africa.
Past anti-boycott bills have
targeted businesses, organizations, and individuals; the current bill also
targets global organizations – specifically the United Nations, which recently published a database of over 100 companies
doing business in illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land. The human
rights expert behind the effort “urged UN Member States to implement laws
banning the import of goods produced in illegal settlements located in any
occupied territory.”
The American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU) has stated
unequivocally that
anti-boycott legislation interferes with free speech, and is therefore
unconstitutional. Nevertheless, thanks to pro-Israel influence, Congress has
considered not less than 22
anti-BDS bills; 28 states have adopted anti-BDS laws (a
number of these are being challenged).
President of the Foundation for
Middle East Peace (FMEP) and Middle East foreign policy expert, Lara Friedman, explains that anti-BDS legislation conflates
voluntary political free speech – taking a stand against Israeli policy – with
a type of coercive boycott that does not resemble the BDS movement.
The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions
(BDS) movement is, in its own words,
a Palestinian-led movement for freedom, justice
and equality. BDS upholds the simple principle that Palestinians are entitled
to the same rights as the rest of humanity.
Israel is occupying and colonizing Palestinian
land, discriminating against Palestinian citizens of Israel and denying
Palestinian refugees the right to return to their homes. Inspired by the South
African anti-apartheid movement, the BDS call urges action to pressure Israel
to comply with international law.
Introduced Jan. 13 by Lee Zeldin
(R-NY-1). Cosponsors to date: D – 1, R – 63.
S.Res. 570 –
A resolution opposing and condemning the potential prosecution of United States
and Israeli nationals by the International Criminal Court.
As mentioned above, the ICC is a
“court of last resort,” where it is possible to try individuals when their home
country is unwilling or unable to do so. The allegations of American war crimes
in Afghanistan, and Israeli war crimes in Israel/Palestine could be resolved if
the US and Israel would self-investigate.
Instead of calling for due process
in the home countries of the accused, however, the pro-Israel bill S.Res.570
calls for impunity – for American citizens and citizens of one other selected
country.
Introduced on May 12 by Sen. Ted
Cruz (R-TX). Cosponsors to date: D – 0, R – 0.
S.3775 – “The United States Israel
Military Capability Act” (A bill to establish a United States-Israel
Operations-Technology Working Group, and for other purposes).
The senators believe that the US government has a
“national security and moral imperative” to guarantee that American soldiers’
weapons are second to none.
Foundation for Defense of
Democracies (recognized as an arm of the Israel lobby) reports that the pro-Israel bill S.3775
seeks to create a “permanent and dedicated forum” for “[sharing]
intelligence-informed military capabilities.”
Israel’s behavior in this regard is
extremely problematic. It has a record of stealing US technology and selling it
to others, including to adversaries.
Israel has also developed advanced
weapons systems and sold them all over the world – including to countries known to be human
rights abusers. Although the US has bankrolled Israel’s Iron Dome for nine
years, when the American military wanted to purchase its own Iron Dome systems,
Israel refused to provide vital source codes.
Israel has also used its advanced
surveillance technology to spy on the US repeatedly in spite of
the fact that the US has given Israel over $230
billion in aid
since 1946.
Introduced by Sen. Gary Peters
(D-MI) on May 20. Cosponsors to date: D – 0, R – 1.
S.3722
and H.R.6829 To authorize funding for a bilateral cooperative program with Israel
for the development of health technologies with a focus on combating COVID-19
(over two weeks after the legislation was introduced, the text is not
available).
In its letter to activists,
exhorting them to contact Congress members, AIPAC proclaims, “Israel is a world leader in medical
innovation, and increased U.S.-Israel collaboration will greatly benefit the
American public.”
Other organizations offered a fuller
perspective of Israel vis-a-vis the pandemic.
Human Rights Watch reported that the temporary disruptions
Israelis are experiencing shed some light on the experience of Palestinians
living under occupation:
…far more sweeping restrictions on movement
have been the norm for decades. Since 2007, Israeli authorities have largely
sealed off the Gaza Strip, banning the movement of 2 million Palestinians
living there outside of “exceptional humanitarian cases” and maintaining a
formal “policy
of separation”
between Gaza and the West Bank. Israel’s closure of Gaza, which is vastly
disproportionate to any concrete security threat, separates thousands of
Palestinians from relatives in the West Bank, inside Israel, and abroad.
Unlike the temporary COVID-19 measures to
protect Israelis, these long-standing restrictions are not meant to protect
Palestinians and are not going away anytime soon.
Israel has reportedly closed
down Palestinian
COVID-19 testing sites, continued (in one case, escalated) its nightly routine of raiding homes, arresting
Palestinians – including minors – and demolishing Palestinian homes and businesses.
Israeli soldiers and settlers have also allegedly been spitting
on Palestinians.
Israeli security forces, wearing
protective masks as a precaution during the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic,
stand on guard in the old city of Jerusalem on the Orthodox Christian holiday
of Holy Friday on April 17, 2020. (AFP)
Introduced by Rep. Chris Pappas (D-NH-1)
on May 12, 2020 and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on May 13, 2020. Senate
cosponsors
to date: D – 3, R – 3; House
cosponsors
to date: D – 4, R – 3.
H.R.5605 – United
States-Israel PTSD Collaborative Research Act (To direct the Secretary
of Defense to carry out a grant program to increase cooperation on
post-traumatic stress disorder research between the United States and Israel).
Israelis have indeed witnessed
violence: spates of stabbings and the infamous “rain of rockets” that have sent
them scrambling for shelter (for facts on Gaza rockets, read this and this).
The rocket phenomenon in Gaza began in 2001,
after the Israeli military had already killed hundreds of Gazan Palestinians.
In fact those “rockets” have in most cases been small, homemade projectiles – many
without explosive capability – and in 19 years have caused 30 Israeli deaths. In the same time
period, Israeli airstrikes have killed over 4,000 Gazan men, women, and children
(this number does not include Palestinians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, or
Israel).
At least 10,006 Palestinians and
1,271 Israelis have been killed by someone from the other side since 2000. (israelpalestinetimeline.org)
Overall, the death toll of
Palestinians and Israelis is both tragic and lopsided: since 2000, over 10,000
Palestinians and 1,200 Israelis have been killed. Vox reports that since 2005,
23 out of every 24 conflict-related deaths have been Palestinian.
Tragically, Palestinians’
experiences would provide a more abundant field for PTSD research.
Palestine has the heartbreaking
distinction of having one of the highest rates of mental illness in the world –
thanks to generations of oppression. For example, 1 in 4 Palestinian
adolescents have attempted suicide, according to the World Journal of Medical
Sciences.
Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP)
has found that 54% of Gazan children who
experienced heavy bombardment in the 2014 Israeli incursion known as Operation
Protective Edge, suffer from severe PTSD, with symptoms including flashbacks
and nightmares.
Palestinian
psychiatrist and member of the Palestinian Ministry of Health, Dr. Samah Jabr, says of such statistics,
What is sick, the context or the
person? In Palestine, we see many people whose symptoms – unusual emotional
reaction or a behaviors – are a normal reaction to a pathogenic context.
Palestinian children gather outside
a United Nations-run school in the northern Gaza Strip. The head of the United
Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Gaza, Pernille Ironside, said that nearly 400,000 Gaza kids were
in urgent need of psychological and social support to overcome the trauma they
experienced during the 2014 Israeli genocidal attacks on the besieged Palestine
enclave. (Reuters)
One in four children in Gaza require
psychosocial support.Israeli violence has made the Palestinian population a
rich source for PTSD research. Palestinians have endured not stabbings, but machine
guns, snipers, and tanks
armed with missiles;
not rains of rockets, but rains of illegal
white phosphorus
and one-ton
bombs; not
intermittent restaurant attacks, but tens
of thousands of home demolitions and hundreds
of thousands of detentions (including over
50,000 children
since the beginning of the occupation), and the relentless cheapening
and degradation of life. (For more on Palestinian and Israeli experiences of violence, read this.)
But if the US wants to study PTSD in
combat veterans, a good starting place would be Breaking the Silence:
Breaking the Silence is an organization of
veteran soldiers who have served in the Israeli military since the start of the
Second Intifada and have taken it upon themselves to expose the Israeli public
to the reality of everyday life in the Occupied Territories.
We endeavor to stimulate public debate about the
price paid for a reality in which young soldiers face a civilian population on
a daily basis, and are engaged in the control of that population’s everyday
life. Our work aims to bring an end to the occupation.
Introduced Jan. 14 by Rep. Mike
Waltz (R-FL-6). Cosponsors to date: D – 25, R – 17.
S.3409 and
H.R.6392
“Secure United States Bases Act” (To modify the conditions and terms of all
foreign military training programs operated within the United States by the
Department of Defense and the Department of State).
These pro-Israel bills would create
a new, nonimmigrant visa category for foreign military students in Department
of Defense and Department of State training programs. Foreign military students
would be subject to comprehensive vetting to be eligible for the visa.
The requirements would apply
retroactively, but students from NATO states and Israel would be exempt.
These bills are a response to the
December 2019 deadly
attack at a US
military facility in Florida in which a Saudi national in military training
shot 11 people, killing 3.
Interestingly, while the Senate puts
great faith in Israeli military students’ loyalty to the US, it is well-known
that Israel has a history of spying on the US – even stealing military secrets – and was caught red-handed as recently as 2019.
In an article entitled “Israel Spies and Spies
and Spies,” Philip Giraldi, former CIA counterterrorism specialist adds, “The
fact is that Israel conducts espionage and influence operations against the
United States more aggressively than any other ‘friendly’ country.”
Nevertheless,
Israeli military trainees appear to be considered trustworthy.
Introduced March 5, 2020 by Sen. Rick
Scott (R-FL), and Rep. Michael Waltz (R-FL-6). Senate
cosponsors
to date: D – 0, R – 1; House
cosponsors
to date: D – 0, R – 1.
Pro-Israel legislation: Anti-Semitism-related
bills
H.Res.782
– Encouraging public schools to design and teach a curriculum about the history
of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust, and the vital importance of the Jewish
State of Israel.
The bill addresses the important
issues of anti-Semitism and Holocaust education, but then turns a corner to
once again target the peaceful Boycott, Divest, and Sanction movement (see
above).
It begins with a list of recent
anti-Semitic incidents and concludes with a call for all public schools to
design and teach a
curriculum about the history of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust, and the
historic importance of the creation of the Jewish State of Israel in 1948 that
served as a refuge for Jews all over the world to escape persecution following
the Holocaust.
The bill ignores the fact that the
creation of Israel was accomplished through a violent, massive ethnic cleansing
against the indigenous population. It also ignores the fact that projects to
create other refuges had been sabotaged by pro-Israel groups.
The legislation also blames the BDS
movement for “rampant anti-Semitism,” although this is broadly considered
untrue. As Lara Friedman points
out,
Fun fact: NONE of the attacks listed in the
resolution have anything to do with Israel or BDS. Yet the drafters make the
resolution about both. Another fun fact: A decade ago then-President Obama was attacked (viciously and over and over) for
using language mentioning the creation of Israel and the Holocaust in adjacent
sentences.
Palestinian children gather outside
a United Nations-run school in the northern Gaza Strip. The head of the United
Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Gaza, Pernille Ironside, said that nearly 400,000 Gaza kids were
in urgent need of psychological and social support to overcome the trauma they
experienced during the 2014 Israeli genocidal attacks on the besieged Palestine
enclave. (Reuters)
The bill does not mandate anti-BDS
instruction, but leaves the content of the curriculum open to interpretation.
H.Res.837 (introduced Feb. 6 by Rep. William
Keating [D-MA-9]) similarly encourages European countries to teach about the Holocaust
and anti-Semitism. It does not name Israel, but does refer to “modern-day
anti-Semitism,” – commonly understood as a reference to anti-Zionism, an
ideology that opposes the “Jewish character of the State of Israel”
It is important to note that pro-Israel
groups regularly pressure school textbook companies to present an
Israel-centric version of history (read, for example, this, this, this, and this) and shut down student
organizations, professors, and curriculum that represent the Palestinian
perspective.
Introduced Jan. 9 by Rep. Ted Budd
(R-NC-13). Cosponsors to date: D – 0; R – 5.
Whereas
many European governments and the European Union have adopted the International
Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of anti-Semitism;
While the bill doesn’t report this,
the IHRA working definition includes certain criticisms of Israel
“antisemitic.” Thus, the resolution affirms an alleged “need” to cooperate in
combatting efforts in support of Palestinian human rights.
(interestingly, in the cases of H.Res.732 and H.Res.884, bills about white supremacism and
Islamophobia, the only cosponsors were Dems.)
Introduced Feb. 6 by Rep. William
Keating (D-MA-9). Cosponsors to date: D – 3; R – 1.
Pro-Israel
legislation: Iran-related bills
Israel has long targeted Iran as an
“existential threat.” For this reason, the Israel lobby has often pushed for
legislation in Congress that sanctions Iran. A separate report on Iran-related
bills will be coming soon.
The single bill that is (peripherally)
pro-Palestine:
H.Res.855 – “Expressing
the sense of the House of Representatives that the US should ratify the Rome
Statute and join the International Criminal Court.”
The International Criminal Court
(ICC) is a “court of last resort” to “bring to
justice the perpetrators of the worst crimes known to humankind” – crimes of
genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity – when national courts can
not or will not do so.
This resolution refers to the fact
that the United States has never become a member of the ICC. Various groups and individual politicians
(primarily Republican) have criticized the institution; others have denounced the critics for endorsing American
exceptionalism.
Israel walks hand-in-hand with the
US in defying the ICC, and has been resisting war crime investigations by the
body for years.
Recently, Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo vowed, “If the ICC continues down its
current course [toward prosecuting Israel], we will exact consequences.”
Notably, American politicians’ and
conservative think tanks’ dismiss the legitimacy of the ICC’s jurisdiction, not
the factual nature of the allegations against Israel (as well as those against
the US), which include crimes (committed by both Israel
and the Palestinians) in the Gaza War of 2014, in the building of Israeli
settlements on Palestinian land, and in the use of lethal force against
peaceful protesters at the Gaza border (apartheid – of which Israel has also
been accused – is also considered a crime against humanity).
Introduced Feb. 12 by Rep. Ilhan
Omar (D-MN-13). Cosponsors to date: D – 0, R – 0.
Kathryn Shihadah
is staff writer for If Americans Knew. She blogs at Palestine Home.
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