Advocate

Our advocacy can take both personal and public forms

  • When we speak with friends and colleagues about this issue, we inspire them to learn more and speak out. 

  • When we write letters to the editor, we’re naming an evil which many readers have never even heard about. 

  • When we show films or sponsor speakers to address this situation we are multiplying awareness of the need to effect change.
  • 
When we write letters to our elected officials or visit their offices we’re sending a strong message.
  • When we
 speak up in town halls, we’re letting elected officials (and everyone else present) know this is an issue we care about.

Each of these forms of advocacy is important, meaningful and necessary to help bring peace to the region. Here we focus on engagements with elected officials, as called for in the 2017 resolution.

What the 2017 UCC resolution on Palestinian children calls for

The 2017 resolution “Calls on the government of the United States to adhere to its own established law – in this case, the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act – by withholding military assistance from the State of Israel due to its practices of arrest and detention of Palestinian children.” It requires Israel to “…guarantee basic due process rights and exercise an absolute prohibition against torture and ill-treatment of detained children, ensuring that, from the moment of arrest, all operations and procedures are carried out in accordance with international juvenile justice standards, specifically the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child…”

The 2017 resolution goes on to ask that UCC members support implementation of a 2015 General Synod resolution which also seeks peace in the region. The 2015 resolution “Calls upon the United Church of Christ Officers and church members to persist in the request to Congress, previously made by a number of religious leaders, to ensure that U.S. aid to Israel violates neither the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act, which prohibits assistance to any country that engages in a consistent pattern of human rights violations, nor the U.S. Arms Export Control Act, which limits the use of U.S. weapons to ‘internal security’ or ‘legitimate self-defense.’”

the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act and U.S. Arms Export Control Act as bases for action 

The Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and the Arms Export Control Act of 1976, together with a provision of the Foreign Assistance Act called the “Leahy Amendment” or the “Leahy Law,”  form the legal basis for many petitions calling for U.S. government sanctions against Israel.  These laws deny military assistance to countries engaged in severe human rights violations. For more information about these laws, see this excellent report by Josh Ruebner.

Despite the clear language of these laws, U.S. taxpayers provide more than $3.8 billion in military assistance to Israel each year – more than is provided by the U.S. to any other country in the world. This funding enables maintenance and expansion of the military occupation, with its severe, repeated violations of international human rights law.  

The UCC resolutions calls on all of us to pressure Congress to uphold our U.S. laws by withholding military aid from Israel.  

Political advocacy

There are currently several measures before the US congress and Senate that will directly affect Palestinian children. One of these measures is the Defending the Human Rights of Palestinian Children and Families Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act (H.R. 2590). This bill, introduced by Representative Betty McCollum of Minnesota, is designed to hold Israel accountable for continued abuse against children held in Israeli military detention as well as the destruction of Palestinian property and annexation of land. The bill would ensure that U.S. financial assistance provided to Israel is not used to support military detention, interrogations, abuse, or ill-treatment of Palestinian children in violation of international humanitarian law. It also restricts aid which is used for the unlawful seizure, appropriation and destruction of Palestinian property and forcible transfer of civilians in the West Bank, as well as further Israeli annexation of Palestinian land.

Many religious and secular groups are working to advocate for passage of this bill. For legislative advocacy on behalf of Palestinian children, we strongly encourage you to connect with one or more of these organizations:

The No Way to Treat a Child campaign is a leading source of information and coordination for legislative advocacy on behalf of incarcerated Palestinian children. The campaign is sponsored by American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and Defense for Children International–Palestine (DCI-P), and includes a network of National Campaign Partners: 

The No Way to Treat a Child campaign offers an excellent toolkit for meeting with your congressional representative, writing a letter to the editor, and much more.

Global Ministries of the UCC and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) regularly publishes action alerts for various issues, including Palestine-Israel and House Bill 5902. To receive these action alerts, visit the Global Ministries web page located here.

In our advocacy for human rights of children, we work in unison with the Justice and Witness Ministries of the United Church of Christ.