Rep McCollum – Stand with Palestine Again!
Members of the Anti-War Committee, the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC), Women Against Military Madness (WAMM) and the MN Abortion Action Committee met with Rep McCollum’s Saint Paul staff in person and later with her chief of staff over the phone on 10/25. We demanded to meet with McCollum, but staffers insisted she couldn’t come to the phone because she was on the House floor. We later discovered, while still occupying McCollum’s office, that while we were waiting to meet with her, she was busy voting in favor of House Resolution 771, which supported Israel’s “right to defend itself.” 12 people were arrested at her office because we refused to leave. Outside hundreds of people in solidarity for 6 hours!
Below is the statement we gave her staff:
Anti-War Committee Statement to Representative Betty McCollum
Representative Betty McCollum reintroduced the “Defending the Human Rights of Palestinian Children and Families Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act” only a few months ago, in May of this year. This is a bill that the Anti-War Committee strongly supports, and we have petitioned in support of it for years. At that time, in May, the Representative’s office stated, “The legislation prohibits Israel’s government from using U.S. taxpayer dollars in the Occupied West Bank for the military detention, abuse, or ill treatment of Palestinian children in Israeli military detention; the seizure and destruction of Palestinian property and homes in violation of international humanitarian law; or any assistance or support for unilateral annexation of Palestinian lands in violation of international humanitarian law.” Representative McCollum herself stated, “Not $1 of U.S. aid should be used to commit human rights violations, demolish families’ homes, or permanently annex Palestinian lands.” She also had the courage to promote the fact that the human rights organizations Addameer and Defense for Children International — Palestine were supporters of the bill, despite the fact that she was unfairly smeared in the Zionist press due to the fact that Israel falsely accuses these groups of being terrorist organizations.
Israel is currently committing precisely these violations of international law: collective punishment; human rights abuses; slaughter and maiming of children; indiscriminate bombing of residential apartments, schools, churches, mosques, hospitals and water treatment facilities; use of cluster munitions and white phosphorous; and the destruction of Palestinian homes that Representative McCollum has spent her career admirably railing against. Israel ordered an evacuation of Northern Gaza and then bombed the caravans of those attempting to flee. Israel ordered Palestinians to leave Gaza to Egypt and then bombed the Egyptian border. Israeli President Isaac Herzog has stated that he views all civilians in Gaza as being complicit in any violent resistance against occupation, implying that civilians are legitimate military targets. Israeli Knesset member Ariel Kallner has openly stated that what is needed is a “new Nakba.” An Israeli Defence official stated that Gaza “would be turned into a city of tents.” The rhetoric coming from Israeli politicians is nothing short of genocidal. More than 5,000 people have already been killed in Gaza and 15,000 injured, the vast majority of them civilians. Entire families have been killed — one family of 19 people was killed in a single Israeli air strike; at least 50 Palestinian bloodlines have been permanently wiped from the face of the earth. This is not a war, it is an Israeli campaign of extermination. Militaries that fail to distinguish between civilians and combatants are guilty of the most severe war crimes under international law.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav a has recently described Palestinians as “human animals.” He made this remark while announcing a “complete siege” of Gaza, cutting the residents of Gaza off from food, water, fuel, and electricity. A number of hospitals in Gaza have already collapsed due to lack of resources, energy and manpower; more hospitals will collapse in the coming days. The denial of humanitarian access and depriving civilians of resources indispensable to their survival are crimes against humanity. In this context they are also war crimes. Since these actions are being perpetrated against a particular ethnic group, who live under what Representative McCollum has correctly described as apartheid, they amount to genocide.
As Representative McCollum must know, 47% of the Palestinians living in Gaza are children, and as such children make up a huge portion of the dead. Every single aspect of Israel’s criminal human rights record that the Representative has highlighted and opposed has become more glaring than ever over the past two weeks. It has become more apparent than ever that the aims of the Representative’s bill, to defend the rights of Palestinian children and families, cannot be achieved without a total end of US aid to Israel. Despite this, Representative McCollum has abandoned Palestine. She has not even once condemned Israel’s illegal and despicable actions since October 7th. She has not publicly objected to the collective punishment of Gaza. She has not reiterated her previous position that “Not $1 of U.S. aid should be used to commit human rights violations.” Instead, she has blamed Hamas for “putting targets on the backs of innocent people in Gaza,” essentially parroting Israel’s position that any human rights abuses, war crimes, or genocidal actions undertaken by Israel can be attributed to Hamas. The Representative has gone from denouncing war crimes to endorsing them.
The Anti-War Committee has the following demands:
- We demand a meeting with Representative McCollum.
- We demand that Representative McCollum vote NO on Biden’s proposed $14 billion in aid to Israel.
- We demand that Representative McCollum release a statement calling for the immediate cessation of the Israeli bombing and siege of Gaza, that a humanitarian corridor be opened to allow for desperately needed resources to reach the people of Gaza, and for no Israeli ground invasion of Gaza.
