Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN) introduced a House bill on Tuesday that seeks to prohibit the U.S. from funding the detention and prosecution of Palestinian children in the Israeli military court system. The legislation is said to be the first time a bill on Palestinian human rights has ever been introduced to Congress.

The 11-page bill comes several weeks after a report was released by Israeli rights groups, with the support of the European Union, which revealed “broad, systemic abuse by Israeli authorities,” against Palestinian teenagers detained in occupied East Jerusalem.

The bill, dubbed the “ “Promoting Human Rights by Ending Israeli Military Detention of Palestinian Children Act,” begins by detailing the provisions laid out by the the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, signed by both the U.S. and Israel in the 90s (the U.S. signed the treaty, but did not ratify it, while Israel both signed and ratified the treaty into Israeli law).

The treaty required, among other things, that ‘‘no child shall be subject to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,” as well as requiring arrests and detentions of minors be used as a last resort and that said detentions should instituted for the shortest period of time possible. It also requires that children have access to fair and speedy trials.

The bill lists other requirements of the convention, and challenges that the Israeli government fails to protect Palestinian children in accordance to its own laws as well as the treaty.

The bill does not request any adjustment or cuts to the amount of money already officially allocated from the U.S. to Israel, instead it requests that none of the funding go toward any of the following practices against children:

• Torture or cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment.
• Physical violence, including restraint in stress positions.
• Hooding, sensory deprivation, death threats, or other forms of psychological abuse.
• Incommunicado detention or solitary confinement.
• Administrative detention (detention without charge or trial under “secret evidence”
• Denial of access to parents or legal counsel during interrogations.
• Confessions obtained by force or coercion.

Rights groups, including Defence for Children International, Human Rights Watch, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), B’Tselem, HaMoked, as well as the State Department, among many others, have documented practices employed by the State of Israel against children that are in contravention of International Law.

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