I 
117TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2590 
To promote and protect the human rights of Palestinians living under Israeli 
military occupation and to ensure that United States taxpayer funds 
are not used by the Government of Israel to support the military deten-
tion of Palestinian children, the unlawful seizure, appropriation, and 
destruction of Palestinian property and forcible transfer of civilians in 
the West Bank, or further annexation of Palestinian land in violation 
of international law. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL 15, 2021 
Ms. MCCOLLUM (for herself, Mr. RUSH, Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois, Mr. 
CARSON, Ms. NEWMAN, Ms. OMAR, Mr. POCAN, Mr. GRIJALVA, Ms. 
TLAIB, Ms. PRESSLEY, Ms. BUSH, Mr. BOWMAN, Ms. OCASIO-CORTEZ, 
and Mr. GARCI´A of Illinois) introduced the following bill; which was re-
ferred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 
A BILL 
To promote and protect the human rights of Palestinians 
living under Israeli military occupation and to ensure 
that United States taxpayer funds are not used by the 
Government of Israel to support the military detention 
of Palestinian children, the unlawful seizure, appropria-
tion, and destruction of Palestinian property and forcible 
transfer of civilians in the West Bank, or further annex-
ation of Palestinian land in violation of international 
law. 
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Defending the Human 
Rights of Palestinian Children and Families Living Under 
Israeli Military Occupation Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) Approximately 3,000,000 Palestinians live 
in the West Bank, of which around 45 percent are 
children under the age of 18 who have lived their en-
tire lives under Israeli military control. 
(2) In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, there 
are two separate and unequal legal systems, with 
Israeli military law imposed on Palestinians and 
Israeli civilian law applied to Israeli settlers. 
(3) Children are entitled to special protections 
and due process rights under international human 
rights law and international humanitarian law. 
(4) Israel has ratified the Convention on the 
Rights of the Child, which states— 
(A) in article 37(a), that ‘‘no child shall be 
subject to torture or other cruel, inhuman or 
degrading treatment or punishment’’; 
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(B) in article 37(b), that the arrest, deten-
tion or imprisonment of a child ‘‘shall be used 
only as a measure of last resort and for the 
shortest appropriate period of time’’; 
(C) in article 37(c), that ‘‘every child de-
prived of liberty shall be treated with humanity 
and respect for the inherent dignity of the 
human person, and in a manner which takes 
into account the needs of persons of his or her 
age’’; and 
(D) in article 37(d), that ‘‘[e]very child de-
prived of his or her liberty shall have the right 
to prompt access to legal and other appropriate 
assistance, as well as the right to challenge the 
legality of the deprivation of his or her liberty 
before a court or other competent, independent 
and impartial authority, and to a prompt deci-
sion on any such action’’. 
(5) The Government of Israel and its military 
detains around 500 to 700 Palestinian children be-
tween the ages of 12 and 17 each year and pros-
ecutes them before a military court system that 
lacks basic and fundamental guarantees of due proc-
ess in violation of international standards. 
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(6) Israeli security forces detain children under 
the age of 12 for interrogation for extended periods 
of time even though the prosecution of children 
under 12 is prohibited by Israeli military law. 
(7) Human Rights Watch, in its World Report 
2020, reported that ‘‘Israel denied Palestinian chil-
dren arrested and detained in the West Bank legal 
protections granted to Israeli children, including set-
tlers, such as protections against nighttime arrests 
and interrogations without a guardian present. 
Israeli forces frequently used unnecessary force 
against children during arrest and physically abused 
them in custody.’’. 
(8) The Israeli human rights organization 
HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual 
issued a report in October 2020 examining night ar-
rests of Palestinian children by Israeli forces in the 
West Bank finding that Israeli authorities continue 
‘‘to send soldiers to arrest Palestinian teenage boys 
at night as a measure of first resort for bringing 
them in for interrogation. This injurious, traumatic 
practice leaves the teenagers broken in body and 
soul, while thwarting the possibility of a fair interro-
gation and almost guaranteeing a conviction.’’. 
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(9) The Israeli human rights organization 
B’Tselem issued a report in 2018 describing the 
treatment of Palestinian children under Israeli mili-
tary occupation: ‘‘Every year, hundreds of Pales-
tinian minors undergo the same scenario. Israeli se-
curity forces pick them up on the street or at home 
in the middle of the night, then handcuff and blind-
fold them and transport them to interrogation, often 
subjecting them to violence en route. Exhausted and 
scared—some having spent a long time in transit, 
some having been roused from sleep, some having 
had nothing to eat or drink for hours—the minors 
are then interrogated. They are completely alone in 
there, cut off from the world, without any adult they 
know and trust by their side, and without having 
been given a chance to consult with a lawyer before 
the interrogation. The interrogation itself often in-
volves threats, yelling, verbal abuse and sometimes 
physical violence. Its sole purpose is to get the mi-
nors to confess or provide information about oth-
ers.’’. 
(10) The State Department’s 2016 Annual Re-
port on Human Rights Practices noted the renewed 
use of ‘‘administrative detention’’ against Palestin-
ians, including children, a practice in which a de-
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tainee may be imprisoned indefinitely, without 
charge or trial, by the order of a military com-
mander or other government official. 
(11) The nongovernmental organization De-
fense for Children International-Palestine (DCIP) 
documented 36 Palestinian children detained and 
placed in administrative detention, or detention 
without charge or trial, since Israel renewed the 
practice against minors in October 2015. 
(12) DCIP collected affidavits from 610 West 
Bank children who were detained by Israeli forces 
from the West Bank between 2016 and 2020, and 
concluded that— 
(A) 73 percent of the children endured 
physical violence following arrest; 
(B) under Israeli military law, children do 
not have the right to a lawyer during interroga-
tion; 
(C) 97 percent of the children did not have 
a parent present during their interrogation; 
(D) 67 percent of the children were not 
properly informed of their rights by Israeli po-
lice; 
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(E) interrogators used stress positions, 
threats of violence, and isolation to coerce con-
fessions from detained children; and 
(F) 135 children were held in pre-trial, 
pre-charge isolation for interrogation purposes 
for an average period of 15 days. 
(13) Amendments to Israeli military law con-
cerning the detention of Palestinian children have 
had little or no impact on the treatment of children 
during the first 24 to 48 hours after an arrest, when 
the majority of their ill treatment occurs. 
(14) Israel’s drive to perpetuate its control over 
the occupied West Bank results in other serious vio-
lations of international law, including the unlawful 
demolition of Palestinian homes and the forcible 
transfer of Palestinian civilians. 
(15) The destruction of property in an occupied 
territory is prohibited under international humani-
tarian law, unless absolutely necessary for military 
operations. 
(16) The Israeli Committee Against Home 
Demolitions reports that Israel has demolished more 
than 48,000 Palestinian structures since 1967, of 
which 24,000 are estimated to be homes. 
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(17) Palestinian properties are subject to demo-
lition or confiscation as part of Israeli-imposed plan-
ning and zoning regimes in Area C and East Jeru-
salem and other parts of the West Bank, and sub-
ject to punitive demolition following an incident of 
violence against Israeli military and police forces, 
settlers, or other civilians. 
(18) Palestinians are required to obtain Israeli- 
issued building permits and the lack of permits is 
typically cited as the reason for demolitions or 
confiscations, even though, due to the restrictive and 
discriminatory Israeli planning regime, Palestinians 
are overwhelmingly denied permits and therefore 
forced to build without the necessary permits. 
(19) From 2016 to 2018, 98.6 percent of the 
1,485 building permit applications that were sub-
mitted by Palestinians in Area C were rejected, with 
only 21 applications approved. 
(20) Palestinians are allowed to build in less 
than one percent of Area C and in only about 15 
percent of East Jerusalem. 
(21) Palestinian homes and structures located 
in Area C and East Jerusalem and other parts of 
the West Bank are under constant threat of demoli-
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to support self-determination, human rights, 
and dignity for both Palestinians and Israelis; 
and 
(B) undermine efforts by the United 
States to achieve a just and lasting peace be-
tween Israel and the Palestinians; 
(2) promoting human rights, human dignity, 
and democratic rights for all Palestinians and 
Israelis are foreign policy priorities of the United 
States; and 
(3) the United States rejects any undemocratic 
system or act of aggression in which Israel unilater-
ally exercises permanent rule over a Palestinian peo-
ple denied self-determination and human rights. 
SEC. 4. STATEMENT OF POLICY. 
It is the policy of the United States not to support 
actions by the Government of Israel involving— 
(1) the military detention of Palestinian chil-
dren in violation of international law; 
(2) the seizure, appropriation, and destruction 
of Palestinian property or the forcible transfer of ci-
vilians in the occupied West Bank in violation of 
international law; or 
(3) further annexation of Palestinian land and 
property in violation of international law. 
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