I 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 4391 

To require the Secretary of State to certify that United States funds do 

not support military detention, interrogation, abuse, or ill-treatment of 

Palestinian children, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

NOVEMBER 14, 2017 

Ms. MCCOLLUM (for herself, Mr. POCAN, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. CONYERS, Mr. 

BLUMENAUER, Ms. PINGREE, Mr. DEFAZIO, Mr. CARSON of Indiana, Mr. 

GUTIE ́RREZ, and Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 

A BILL 

To require the Secretary of State to certify that United 

States funds do not support military detention, interrogation, abuse, or ill-treatment of Palestinian children, and 

for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Promoting Human 

5 Rights by Ending Israeli Military Detention of Palestinian 

6 Children Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

2 Congress finds the following: 

3 (1) Israel ratified the Convention on the Rights 

4 of the Child on October 3, 1991, which states— 

5 (A) in article 37(a), that ‘‘no child shall be 

6 subject to torture or other cruel, inhuman or 

7 degrading treatment or punishment’’; 

8 (B) in article 37(b), that the arrest, deten9 tion or imprisonment of a child ‘‘shall be used 

10 only as a measure of last resort and for the 

11 shortest appropriate period of time’’; 

12 (C) in article 37(c), that ‘‘every child de13 prived of liberty shall be treated with humanity 

14 and respect for the inherent dignity of the 

15 human person, and in a manner which takes 

16 into account the needs of persons of his or her 

17 age’’; and 

18 (D) in article 37(d), that ‘‘[e]very child de19 prived of his or her liberty shall have the right 

20 to prompt access to legal and other appropriate 

21 assistance, as well as the right to challenge the 

22 legality of the deprivation of his or her liberty 

23 before a court or other competent, independent 

24 and impartial authority, and to a prompt deci25 sion on any such action’’. 


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1 (2) In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, there 

2 are two separate legal systems, with Israeli military 

3 law imposed on Palestinians and Israeli civilian law 

4 applied to Israeli settlers. 

5 (3) The Israeli military detains around 500 to 

6 700 Palestinian children between the ages of 12 and 

7 17 each year and prosecutes them before a military 

8 court system that lacks basic and fundamental guar9 antees of due process in violation of international 

10 standards. 

11 (4) Approximately 2,700,000 Palestinians live 

12 in the West Bank, of which around 47 percent are 

13 children under the age of 18, who live under military 

14 occupation, the constant fear of arrest, detention, 

15 and violence by the Israeli military, and the threat 

16 of recruitment by armed groups. 

17 (5) Since 2000, an estimated 10,000 Pales18 tinian children have been detained by Israeli security 

19 forces in the West Bank and prosecuted in the 

20 Israeli military court system. 

21 (6) Children under the age of 12 cannot be 

22 prosecuted in Israeli military courts. However, 

23 Israeli military forces detain children under the age 

24 of 12 and question them, for several hours, before 


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1 releasing them to their families or to Palestinian au2 thorities. 

3 (7) Human Rights Watch documented, in a 

4 July 2015 report titled ‘‘Israel: Security Forces 

5 Abuse Palestinian Children’’, that such detentions 

6 also included the use of chokeholds, beatings, and 

7 coercive interrogation on children between the ages 

8 of 11 and 15 years. 

9 (8) The United Nations Children’s Fund 

10 (UNICEF) concluded, in a February 2013 report ti11 tled ‘‘Children in Israeli Military Detention’’, that 

12 the ‘‘ill-treatment of children who come in contact 

13 with the military detention system appears to be 

14 widespread, systematic and institutionalized 

15 throughout the process, from the moment of arrest 

16 until the child’s prosecution and eventual conviction 

17 and sentencing’’. 

18 (9) The 2013 UNICEF report further deter19 mines that the Israeli system of military detention of 

20 Palestinian children profoundly deviates from inter21 national norms, stating that ‘‘in no other country 

22 are children systematically tried by juvenile military 

23 courts that, by definition, fall short of providing the 

24 necessary guarantees to ensure respect for their 

25 rights’’. 


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1 (10) UNICEF also released reports in October 

2 2013 and February 2015 noting that Israeli authori3 ties have, since March 2013, issued new military or4 ders and taken steps to reinforce existing military 

5 and police standard operating procedures relating to 

6 the detention of Palestinian children. However, the 

7 reports still found continued and persistent evidence 

8 of ill-treatment of Palestinian children detained by 

9 Israeli forces. 

10 (11) In 2013, the annual Country Report on 

11 Human Rights Practices for Israel and the Occupied 

12 Territories (‘‘Annual Report’’) published by the De13 partment of State noted that Israeli security services 

14 continued to abuse, and in some cases torture mi15 nors, frequently arrested on suspicion of stone16 throwing, in order to coerce confessions. The torture 

17 tactics used included threats, intimidation, long-term 

18 handcuffing, beatings, and solitary confinement. 

19 (12) The 2013 Annual Report also stated that 

20 ‘‘signed confessions by Palestinian minors, written in 

21 Hebrew, a language most could not read, continued 

22 to be used as evidence against them in Israeli mili23 tary courts’’. 

24 (13) The 2016 Annual Report noted a ‘‘signifi25 cant increase in detentions of minors’’ in 2016, and 


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1 that ‘‘Israeli authorities continued to use confessions 

2 signed by Palestinian minors, written in Hebrew.’’ It 

3 also highlighted the renewed use of ‘‘administrative 

4 detention’’ against Palestinians, including children, a 

5 practice in which a detainee may be held indefinitely, 

6 without charge or trial, by the order of a military 

7 commander or other government official. 

8 (14) The nongovernmental organization De9 fense for Children International Palestine collected 

10 affidavits from 429 West Bank children who were 

11 detained between 2012 and 2015, and concluded 

12 that— 

13 (A) three-quarters of the children endured 

14 physical violence following arrest; 

15 (B) under Israeli military law, children do 

16 not have the right to a lawyer during interroga17 tion; 

18 (C) 97 percent of the children did not have 

19 a parent present during their interrogation; 

20 (D) 84 percent of the children were not 

21 properly informed of their rights by Israeli po22 lice; 

23 (E) interrogators used stress positions, 

24 threats of violence, and isolation to coerce con25 fessions from detained children; and 


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1 (F) 66 children were held in pre-trial, pre2 charge isolation for interrogation purposes for 

3 an average period of 13 days. 

4 (15) Amendments to Israeli military law con5 cerning the detention of Palestinian children have 

6 had little to no impact on the treatment of children 

7 during the first 24 to 48 hours after an arrest, when 

8 the majority of their ill-treatment occurs. 

9 (16) In 2002, the United Nations Committee 

10 on the Rights of the Child, which monitors imple11 mentation of the Convention on the Rights of the 

12 Child, reviewed Israel’s compliance with the Conven13 tion and expressed serious concern regarding ‘‘alle14 gations and complaints of inhuman or degrading 

15 practices and of torture and ill-treatment of Pales16 tinian children’’ during arrest, interrogation, and de17 tention. 

18 (17) In 2013, the Committee declared that Pal19 estinian children arrested by Israeli forces ‘‘continue 

20 to be systematically subject to degrading treatment, 

21 and often to acts of torture’’ and that Israel had 

22 ‘‘fully disregarded’’ the previous recommendations of 

23 the Committee to comply with international law. 


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1 SEC. 3. PURPOSE. 

2 The purpose of this Act is to promote and protect 

3 the human rights of Palestinian children and to ensure 

4 that United States taxpayer funds shall not be used to 

5 support the military detention of Palestinian children. 

6 SEC. 4. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 

7 It is the sense of Congress that the detention and 

8 prosecution of Palestinian children in a military court sys9 tem by the Government of Israel— 

10 (1) violates international law and internation11 ally recognized standards of human rights; 

12 (2) is contrary to the values of the American 

13 people and the efforts of the United States to sup14 port equality, human rights, and dignity for both 

15 Palestinians and Israelis; 

16 (3) undermines efforts by the United States to 

17 achieve a just and lasting peace between Israel and 

18 the Palestinians; and 

19 (4) should be terminated and replaced with a 

20 juvenile justice system in which Israeli authorities do 

21 not discriminate between the treatment of Israeli 

22 and Palestinian children and that adheres to inter23 nationally recognized standards of human rights and 

24 obligations. 


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1 SEC. 5. STATEMENT OF POLICY. 

2 It is the policy of the United States not to support 

3 the military detention of Palestinian children, a practice 

4 that results in widespread and systematic human rights 

5 violations against Palestinian child detainees and is incon6 sistent with the values of the United States. 

7 SEC. 6. PROHIBITION ON UNITED STATES FUNDS TO SUP8 PORT MILITARY DETENTION OF PALES9 TINIAN CHILDREN. 

10 (a) PROHIBITION.—Notwithstanding any other provi11 sion of law, none of the funds authorized to be appro12 priated for assistance to Israel may be used to support 

13 the military detention, interrogation, abuse, or ill-treat14 ment of Palestinian children in violation of international 

15 humanitarian law or to support the use against Pales16 tinian children of any of the following practices: 

17 (1) Torture or cruel, inhumane, or degrading 

18 treatment. 

19 (2) Physical violence, including restraint in 

20 stress positions. 

21 (3) Hooding, sensory deprivation, death threats, 

22 or other forms of psychological abuse. 

23 (4) Incommunicado detention or solitary con24 finement. 

25 (5) Administrative detention, as described in 

26 section 2(13). 


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1 (6) Denial of access to parents or legal counsel 

2 during interrogations. 

3 (7) Confessions obtained by force or coercion. 

4 (b) CERTIFICATION.—Not later than October 15, 

5 2018, and annually thereafter, the Secretary of State shall 

6 submit to the Committee on Appropriations of the House 

7 of Representatives and the Committee on Appropriations 

8 of the Senate— 

9 (1) a certification that none of the funds obli10 gated or expended in the previous fiscal year for as11 sistance to the Government of Israel have been used 

12 by such Government to support personnel, training, 

13 lethal materials, equipment, facilities, logistics, 

14 transportation or any other activity that supports or 

15 is associated with any of the activities prohibited 

16 under subsection (a); or 

17 (2) if the Secretary cannot make such a certifi18 cation, a report describing in detail the amount of 

19 such funds used by the Government of Israel in vio20 lation of subsection (a) and each activity supported 

21 by such funds. 

22 (c) ADDITIONAL MATTER IN EXISTING REPORTS.— 

23 The Secretary of State shall include, in each report re24 quired under section 116 of the Foreign Assistance Act 

25 of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151n), a description of the nature 


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1 and extent of detention, interrogation, abuse, or ill-treat2 ment of Palestinian children by Israeli military forces or 

3 police in violation of international humanitarian law. 

Æ 


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