The Israel-Palestine Committee has submitted a letter to Senators Markey and Warren regarding the new government of Israel, which has several ultra right wing ministers who are calling for annexation of the west bank. We are asking that they introduce in the Senate a bill based on Betty McCollum’s bil defending Palestinian children. The letter text is available below.

If you have not already signed on, please consider sending this letter to Senator Markey and Senator Warren. Your voice matters, and by expressing your thoughts and concerns on this issue, you can help shape the decisions made by your elected representatives. Please consider taking action and sending this letter today.

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Dear Senators Markey & Warren,

Boston Workers Circle, a secular Jewish community of 700, is appalled by the recent Israeli Election which put far right religious nationalists into ministerial positions of great power. 

Bezazel Smotrich has been an agent provocateur who wants Arab Israelis expelled from Israel and has argued that maternity hospitals should be separate for Jewish and Arab citizens. A Jewish Supremacist, he also calls for religious law to be the law of the land. Smotrich has become Finance Minister where he threatens to confiscate funding from human rights organizations. 

Itamar Ben-Gvir has led pogroms in Hebron, had a portrait of Baruch Goldstein, a mass-murderer, in his house, and attended a celebration of Meir Kahane, a convicted terrorist. The thought that he is now in charge of the police and the military, is chilling. 

This movement in Israeli politics towards religious authoritarianism does not stand alone, but is part and parcel of right-wing authoritarianism movements world-wide. These movements are anti-human rights and anti-peace and must be resisted by all people of good intent.

Israel no longer even pays lip service to a peaceful solution to their conflicts, and having these ministers in power will exacerbate the pain and suffering of the Palestinian people who live under a system (according to Israeli Human Rights organization B’Tselem, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International) of Apartheid.

It is important that Congress puts laws in place to prohibit Israel from using U.S. taxpayer dollars towards ongoing human rights abuses in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, as well as towards Israel’s unilateral annexation of Palestinian territory in violation of international humanitarian law.  We therefore ask that you introduce a Senate version of  Betty McCollum’s HR 2590 bill DEFENDING THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF PALESTINIAN CHILDREN AND FAMILIES LIVING UNDER ISRAELI MILITARY OCCUPATION ACT. Thank you!

Signed by 37 members of the Boston Workers Circle Israel-Palestine Committee