I 
118TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3103 
To promote and protect the human rights of Palestinians living under Israeli 
military occupation, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 5, 2023 
Ms. MCCOLLUM (for herself, Mr. BEYER, Ms. PRESSLEY, Ms. TLAIB, Mr. 
PAYNE, Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN, Ms. OMAR, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. BOW-
MAN, Mr. POCAN, Ms. BUSH, Ms. JAYAPAL, Mr. GARCI´A of Illinois, Ms. 
OCASIO-CORTEZ, Ms. LEE of California, Ms. LEE of Pennsylvania, and 
Mr. EVANS) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Foreign Affairs 
A BILL 
To promote and protect the human rights of Palestinians 
living under Israeli military occupation, and for other 
purposes. 
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: 
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(1) Approximately 3,100,000 Palestinians live 
in the West Bank, of which around 42 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’’; 
(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 
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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. 
(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) Save the Children released a report in 2020 
based on a survey of more than 470 children de-
tained by Israeli forces in the West Bank that found 
‘‘[a] majority reported they had endured a dis-
tressing or violent arrest or detention, in most cases 
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at night; a coercive interrogation environment; phys-
ical and emotional abuse in detention; and a denial 
of essential services including an adequate edu-
cation—all of which constitute a breach of their 
rights enshrined in international.’’. 
(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.’’ In 
January 2023, new data compiled by HaMoked 
showed ‘‘show that in 2022, Israel continued and 
even exacerbated its unlawful practice of night ar-
rests of children’’ concluding that ‘‘the majority of 
these arrests are nothing short of arbitrary ar-
rests.’’. 
(9) The Israeli human rights organization 
B’Tselem issued a report in 2018 describing the 
treatment of Palestinian children under Israeli mili-
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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 2016 Annual Report on Human 
Rights Practices of the State Department noted the 
renewed use of ‘‘administrative detention’’ against 
Palestinians, including children, a practice in which 
a detainee may be imprisoned indefinitely, without 
charge or trial, by the order of a military com-
mander or other government official. 
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(11) The nongovernmental organization De-
fense for Children International-Palestine (DCIP) 
documented 60 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 766 West 
Bank children who were detained by Israeli forces 
from the West Bank between 2016 and 2022, and 
concluded that— 
(A) 75 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) 66 percent of the children were not 
properly informed of their rights by Israeli po-
lice; 
(E) 86 percent of children were not in-
formed of the reason for arrest; 
(F) 59 percent of children were arrested 
from their homes during nighttime military in-
cursions; 
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(G) interrogators used stress positions, 
threats of violence, and isolation to coerce con-
fessions from detained children; and 
(H) 178 children were held in pre-trial, 
pre-charge isolation for interrogation purposes 
for an average period of 16.5 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) 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 
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violence against Israeli military and police forces, 
settlers, or other civilians. 
(17) 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. 
(18) Between 2016 to 2020, 99.1 percent of the 
2,550 building permit applications that were sub-
mitted by Palestinians in Area C were rejected, with 
only 24 applications approved. 
(19) Palestinians are allowed to build in less 
than one percent of Area C and in only about 15 
percent of East Jerusalem. 
(20) Palestinian homes and structures located 
in Area C and East Jerusalem and other parts of 
the West Bank are under constant threat of demoli-
tion from the moment construction begins and are 
often demolished with little notice. 
(21) The United Nations Office for the Coordi-
nation for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported 
between April 15, 2021, and March 30, 2023, Israeli 
authorities demolished or seized 1,840 Palestinian 
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structures across the West Bank, including East Je-
rusalem, resulting in the displacement of 2,170 peo-
ple, including 1,104 Palestinian children. 
(22) OCHA noted that one of the major trends 
observed in 2020 was the increased use of military 
orders and other legislation, preventing or limiting 
the ability of Palestinians to legally challenge the 
targeting of their homes and sources of livelihood in 
Israeli courts. 
(23) In 2018, Israeli forces issued Military 
Order 1797 that expedites the demolition of new 
structures that do not have a permit, authorizing the 
demolition within 96 hours of delivering a demolition 
order. 
(24) OCHA reported in March 2023 that 58 
schools in the West Bank, which are attended by 
6,500 children, are subject to demolition orders 
issued by Israeli authorities. 
(25) Demolitions clearly and deliberately under-
mine the prospects for a just and lasting peace be-
tween Israel and the Palestinians and create oppres-
sive conditions that leave Palestinians with no other 
choice than to leave their homes and lands. 
(26) Punitive demolitions function as an act of 
collective punishment against the families of sus-
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pects or perpetrators and create insecurity in the 
surrounding communities. Though Israeli authorities 
maintain that punitive demolitions are a means of 
achieving security, Israel does not demolish the 
homes of Israelis who have committed crimes 
against Palestinians as part of its policy. 
(27) The restrictive and discriminatory Israeli 
planning regime undermines rights and guarantees 
in international human rights law and international 
humanitarian law and facilitates unlawful acts and 
policies, including destruction of property and forc-
ible transfer of civilians, expropriation of land and 
natural resources, illegal settlement expansion, and 
further annexation of Palestinian land. 
(28) Jewish-only settlements established by the 
Government of Israel in the occupied West Bank, in-
cluding East Jerusalem, have no legal validity and 
constitute a flagrant violation under international 
law and a major obstacle to the achievement of a 
just and lasting peace between Israel and the Pal-
estinians. 
(29) Unilateral annexation of any part of the 
occupied West Bank by the Government of Israel is 
a flagrant violation of international law and a pro-
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hibited act of aggression under Article 2(4) of the 
United Nations Charter. 
(30) Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of 
United States foreign assistance since World War II, 
receiving from the United States $158,000,000,000 
(current, or noninflation-adjusted, dollars) in bilat-
eral assistance and missile defense funding. 
(31) In 2016, the United States and Israeli 
governments signed a new 10-year Memorandum of 
Understanding (MOU) on military assistance, cov-
ering fiscal year 2019 to fiscal year 2028. 
(32) Under the terms of the MOU, the United 
States pledges to provide $38,000,000,000 in mili-
tary assistance ($33,000,000,000 in Foreign Mili-
tary Financing grants plus $5,000,000,000 in mis-
sile defense appropriations) to Israel, replacing a 
previous $30,000,000,000, 10-year agreement that 
ran through fiscal year 2018. 
(33) The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 
2023 (Public Law 117–328), provides Israel with 
$3,300,000,000 in Foreign Military Financing 
(FMF), including $775,300,000 million designated 
specifically for procurements in Israel, commonly re-
ferred 
to 
as 
‘‘offshore 
procurements’’, 
and 
$500,000,000 in missile defense funding. 
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(34) The sale and export of United States-ori-
gin defense articles and defense services to foreign 
countries are governed by an extensive set of laws, 
regulations, policies, and procedures, including au-
thorizations and reporting requirements in both the 
National Defense Authorization Acts and in the 
State Department, Foreign Operations, and Related 
Programs Appropriations Acts. 
(35) Congress has authorized sales to the Gov-
ernment of Israel under the Foreign Assistance Act 
of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151, et seq.) and the Arms Ex-
port Control Act of 1976 (22 U.S.C. 2751, et seq.). 
(36) The Arms Export Control Act of 1976 (22 
U.S.C. 271, et seq.) generally prohibits foreign coun-
tries from using funds made available under the Act 
for procurement outside the United States. However, 
each year since 1991, varying amounts of FMF 
grants have been designated for offshore procure-
ments in Israel. 
(37) In 1991, the Government Accountability 
Office, formerly the General Accounting Office, 
issued a report to the Committee on Foreign Rela-
tions of the Senate examining United States military 
funding to Israel, which specifically audited Israel’s 
expenditures for offshore procurements and assessed 
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whether the executive branch had complied with leg-
islative requirements. 
SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 
It is the sense of Congress that— 
(1) actions by the Government of Israel in the 
occupied West Bank, including the detention and 
prosecution of Palestinian children in the Israeli 
military court system, the seizure, appropriation, 
and destruction of Palestinian property and forcible 
transfer of civilians, and further annexation of Pal-
estinian land in violation of international law and 
internationally recognized standards of human 
rights— 
(A) are contrary to the values of the Amer-
ican people and the efforts of the United States 
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 
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(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. 
SEC. 5. LIMITATION ON ASSISTANCE. 
(a) PROHIBITION.—Notwithstanding any other provi-
sion of law, none of the funds authorized to be appro-
priated or otherwise made available for assistance to the 
Government of Israel may be obligated or expended for 
any of the following: 
(1) Supporting the military detention, interro-
gation, abuse, or ill treatment of Palestinian chil-
dren in violation of international humanitarian law 
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ment, facilities, logistics, transportation, or any 
other activity to territory in the occupied West Bank 
to facilitate or support further unilateral annexation 
by Israel of such territory in violation of inter-
national humanitarian law. 
(b) CERTIFICATION.—Not later than September 30, 
2023, and annually thereafter, the Secretary of State shall 
submit to the Committee on Appropriations and the Com-
mittee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives 
and the Committee on Appropriations and the Committee 
on Foreign Relations of the Senate one of the following 
with respect to the preceding fiscal year— 
(1) a certification that none of the funds obli-
gated or expended in the previous fiscal year for as-
sistance to the Government of Israel have been used 
by such Government to support personnel, training, 
lethal materials, equipment, facilities, logistics, 
transportation, or any other activity that supports or 
is associated with any of the activities prohibited 
under subsection (a); or 
(2) a certification that funds obligated or ex-
pended in the previous fiscal year have supported or 
been associated with one or more activities prohib-
ited under subsection (a), along with a report de-
scribing in detail the amount of such funds used by 
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the Government of Israel in violation of such sub-
section and each activity supported by such funds. 
SEC. 6. OVERSIGHT AND ADDITIONAL REPORTING. 
The Secretary of State shall include, in each report 
required under section 116 of the Foreign Assistance Act 
of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151n)— 
(1) a description of the nature and extent of de-
tention, interrogation, abuse, or ill treatment of Pal-
estinian children by Israeli military forces or police 
in violation of international humanitarian law; 
(2) a description of the nature and extent of the 
seizure, appropriation, or destruction of Palestinian 
property in the Israeli-controlled and occupied West 
Bank by Israeli authorities in violation of inter-
national humanitarian law; and 
(3) a description of the nature and extent of 
Israeli settlement activities, including an assessment 
of the compliance of the Government of Israel with 
United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 
(2016). 
SEC. 7. GAO REPORT ON ISRAEL’S EXPENDITURES FOR 
OFFSHORE PROCUREMENT. 
Not later than September 30, 2023, and annually 
thereafter, the Comptroller General of the United States 
shall prepare and submit to Congress a report that— 
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(1) identifies the specific programs and items 
funds for offshore procurement in Israel have been 
allocated 
to, 
including 
specific 
armed 
forces 
branches, units, and contractors; 
(2) assesses executive branch compliance with 
legislative requirements governing offshore procure-
ments in Israel; 
(3) identifies, in detail, all end-use monitoring 
the Government of Israel is subject to with respect 
to United States-origin defense articles; and 
(4) analyzes the effects of offshore procure-
ments on Israel’s military budget and domestic econ-
omy since 1991, including an assessment of the 
manner and extent to which these funds have di-
rectly or indirectly supported illegal Israeli settle-
ment activity in the occupied West Bank. 
Æ 
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