Breaking The Stories: October 2022
Curated by the Rev. Loren McGrail,
UCC PIN Steering Committee
The U.S. should end Israel funding by implementing the Leahy Law and H.R. 2590
…As Americans, we give Israel $3.8 billion worth of unconditional military aid every year, yet we do not enforce accountability mechanisms already in place, including those set forth in the Leahy Law. The Leahy Law states that we will not provide funding “… to any unit of the security forces of a foreign country if the Secretary of State has credible information that such unit has committed a gross violation of human rights.”
The second statutory provision to the Law, under the Department of Defense, states that the Secretary of Defense has the responsibility to “…ensure that prior to a decision to provide any training, equipment, or other assistance to a unit of a foreign security force full consideration is given to any credible information available to the Department of State relating to human rights violations by such unit.” The Law is in place, and it is our responsibility to ensure that it is enforced, as the United States has done in other countries. Israel cannot continue to be the exception.
Not all hope is lost, though, in pushing for accountability and justice and ending human rights abuses, including the state-sanctioned extrajudicial killings of children in Palestine. Congresswoman Betty McCollum introduced H.R. 2590, or the Defending the Human Rights of Palestinian Children and Families Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act, in 2021.
Rashida Tlaib’s historic face-off with Israel lobby over ‘apartheid’
Rashida Tlaib’s comment that “you cannot claim to hold progressive values yet back Israel’s apartheid government” is turning into a defining moment in the progressive wing of the Democratic Party.
Leading Jewish groups have attacked Tlaib for supposedly calling for Israel’s destruction. Jonathan Greenblatt of the ADL has said that she is an antisemite. And the rightwing lobby group the Democratic Majority for Israel has helped rally a large number of Democratic House members to condemn her comments, with Rep. Ritchie Torres leading the parade, and and Debbie Wasserman Schultz in tow. Here
Palestine: Brutal settler attacks on Huwwara find allies in Israeli soldiers
Abdullah Odeh was sitting in his office in the local amusement park he owns in the northern occupied West Bank town of Huwwara when the Israeli attack began. "It was around 2.20pm when we heard the alarms go off on the cars parked outside," Odeh, 50, told Middle East Eye. "When we went outside, we saw a huge group of masked settlers descending upon us from the hilltop."They started throwing huge rocks down towards us all of a sudden, breaking the windows of the cars outside the park. It was like it was raining down rocks.
More Resources:
- Anti-boycott laws are a dystopian nightmare
- Katie Halper Violated Media Taboo Against Israel Criticism
- The Jerusalem Declaration On Antisemitism
- Google removes defamatory Israeli ad after appeal by The Rights Forum
- The Case for Palestinian Nationality
- Vin Arfuso and Anwar Hadid’s 'Walled Off': A heart-opening expression of cinematic intifada and Palestinian deliverance
- A new generation of Palestinians is emerging to resist Israel
- Why Israel fears Fathi Khazem, the latest symbol of Palestinian resistance
- Uncovering the real story of 'The Lioness' of Palestine: Ahed Tamimi's journey of resistance, trust and vulnerability
- From Exodus to Marvel: A Brief History of Hollywood’s Justification of Israeli War Crimes
Media Resources:
- The recording of Dr. Mark Braverman's interview about his latest article in Theology Today, "Theology in the Shadow of the Holocaust: Revisiting Bonhoeffer and the Jews," on the ICMEP YouTube channel is Here. And Here is a link to Mark's article.
