•HCON 202 IH
Whereas the Palestinian Authority established and trained
units, called the Fatah Youth cadres, or ‘‘Shabiba’’, to
fight in the current ‘‘Intifada’’;
Whereas the Palestinian national media have encouraged the
children to become martyrs;
Whereas the Palestinian educational system uses an anti-
Israeli curriculum which endorses fighting against Israel
and promotes the martyrdom of children;
Whereas the Palestinian Authority has incited and continues
to incite its children to acts of violence against the State
of Israel;
Whereas Yasir Arafat has called Palestinian children ‘‘gen-
erals of the Intifada’’ and those ‘‘who throw the stones
to defend Jerusalem, the Muslims, and the holy places’’;
Whereas the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Information
has commended the Palestinian children’s ‘‘unique exam-
ple for resistance’’ stating that it forms ‘‘the first defense
line against the Israeli military arsenal’’;
Whereas Sheik Ikrima Sabri, the Mufti of Jerusalem ap-
pointed by Yasir Arafat, stated that ‘‘the younger the
martyr, the greater and the more I respect him’’;
Whereas during the summer of 2000, approximately 25,000
Palestinian children attended military-style summer
camps run by Yasir Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organi-
zation Fatah Movement to indoctrinate them in anti-
Israeli militancy;
Whereas the American Academy of Pediatrics states that
‘‘governments that encourage or permit children to par-
ticipate in violence, to further political aims, are prac-
ticing a form of societal abuse’’;
•HCON 202 IH
Whereas Doctors Opposed to Child Sacrifice, an organization
of American pediatricians, has strongly condemned the
use and encouragement of child soldiers by Palestinian
families and community leaders;
Whereas the Tulkarm Women’s Union has urged Yasir
Arafat ‘‘to issue instructions to your police force to stop
sending innocent children to their death’’; and
Whereas Carol Bellamy, the Executive Director of the United
Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), has called on the
Palestinian Authority ‘‘to take energetic measures to dis-
courage those underage from participating in any violent
action because such action places them at risk’’: Now,
therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate
concurring), That Congress—
(1) considers the Palestinian Authority in viola-
tion of the principles embodied in the United Na-
tions Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989)
for its use of children as soldiers and inciting chil-
dren to acts of violence and war;
(2) strongly urges the Palestinian Council to
immediately declare its commitment to the United
Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and
to adopt legislation to implement the Convention as
soon as possible;
(3) while reaffirming the continued applicability
of all existing prohibitions, restrictions, limitations,
•HCON 202 IH
and directives that otherwise apply to the Pales-
tinian Authority—
(A) urges the President to withhold any
future United States assistance to the Pales-
tinian Authority until the Authority stops the
use of children in armed conflict; and
(B) urges the Secretary of the Treasury to
instruct the United States executive director of
each international financial institution to use
the voice and vote of the United States to op-
pose any assistance from that financial institu-
tion to the Palestinian Authority until the Pal-
estinian Authority discontinues its use of chil-
dren as soldiers;
(4) requests the Secretary of State to submit to
the Committee on International Relations of the
House of Representatives and the Committee on
Foreign Relations of the Senate—
(A) a report on the degree to which Pales-
tinian children are encouraged by the Pales-
tinian Authority to participate in organized acts
of violence and acts of terror, and the degree to
which the Palestinian education system, reli-
gious structures, and media play a role in the
•HCON 202 IH
participation of Palestinian children in violence;
and
(B) periodic reports every 6 months on ef-
forts by the Palestinian Authority to discour-
age, prevent, and halt the involvement of chil-
dren in organized Palestinian violence and acts
of terror; and
(5) requests the Secretary of State to transmit
a copy of this concurrent resolution to the Pales-
tinian Authority.
Æ