4. Safety for all:

12. Call for an end to Israeli Medical Apartheid

+ Call on the Biden administration to push the Israeli government on Palestinian vaccine access

• Build on the March 2021 letters issued by Rep Bowman to the Israeli consul, and the Rep. Tlaib-Pocan led letter, the Rep. Pocan-Carson led letter and the Sen. Sanders led letter to Secretary Blinken urging Israel to vaccinate Palestinians as per their obligations under international law.

• Vaccine apartheid is one part of a broader issue: Israel’s system of military checkpoints and total control of Palestinian movement denies Palestinians their right to healthcare on the daily, causing harm and heartbreak. Regularly, 1 in 10 pregnant Palestinians are delayed in reaching hospitals by Israel’s military checkpoints. In 2018, about 4 in 10 Palestinians with cancer or other severe conditions, who sought to leave Gaza’s blockaded and bombarded hospital system for specialized treatment elsewhere, faced denials by Israel’s racist permit system.

From Pocan-Carson letter:

“As the occupying power, Israel has a legal responsibility under the Geneva Conventions to ensure that the occupied Palestinian population is provided with adequate medical care including “adoption and application of the prophylactic and preventative measures necessary to combat the spread of contagious diseases and epidemics” to “the fullest extent of the means available to it.” Even though, under the Oslo Accords, the Palestinian Authority maintains responsibility for the management of health care for Palestinian’s living in the occupied territory, this does not negate Israeli obligations under international law, nor does it lessen Israel’s control over Palestinian movement, access to medical imports, and other factors which directly impact vaccination efforts.”

From the Sanders-led letter:

“As the occupying power under international law, Israel is legally obligated to provide for the health and well-being of all people under its control. This obligation stems from the Fourth Geneva Convention Article 56, which states: “To the fullest extent of the means available to it, the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring and maintaining, with the cooperation of national and local authorities, the medical and hospital establishments and services, public health and hygiene in the occupied territory, with particular reference to the adoption and application of the prophylactic and preventive measures necessary to combat the spread of contagious diseases and epidemics.”

While the Oslo Accords gave the Palestinian Authority considerable responsibility for the health care of Palestinians in the occupied territories, which they should also be urged to uphold, the Accords do not supersede Israel’s responsibilities under the 4th Geneva Convention.”

13. End US funding for Israeli child detention and torture of Palestinian children:

+ Co-Sponsor H.R. 2590 Defending the Human Rights of Palestinian Children and Families Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act

Israel imprisons hundreds of Palestinian children a year with our tax dollars. Armed soldiers barge into homes in the middle of the night, taking children away from their parents. Israel subjects children to torture and abuse, deprives them of food and water, and denies them their right to an attorney.

The Israeli military has detained at least 10,000 Palestinian children since 2000. Nearly three out of four Palestinian children experience physical violence after arrest.

From H.R. 2590:

Sec 5. LIMITATION ON ASSISTANCE:

“(a) PROHIBITION Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no funds authorized to be appropriated or otherwise made available for assistance to the Government of Israel maybe obligation or expended for any of the following:

Supporting the military detention, interrogration, 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:

(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, including when a detainee is held indefinitely, 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.”.

14. Push for climate and water justice in Palestine

+ Tackle environmental racism and settler colonialism - from the environmental impact of settlements to Israel’s diversion of water away from Palestinians

• The environmental impact of the settlements, many of which host unregulated industries, turn nearby Palestinian villages into toxic waste dumps and create public health crises. Water is diverted from Palestinian use towards the settlements, leaving Israelis with at least four times the water consumption as Palestinians (Amnesty International, Al Jazeera).

• As of 2015, 95% of the water available to Gaza’s two million residents—whose water access is controlled by Israel— is unfit to drink.