# What This Bill Actually Does

This bill aims to restrict U.S. military aid to Israel by prohibiting funds from supporting what the bill describes as human rights violations against Palestinians in the West Bank. Specifically, it would block military assistance from being used for detaining Palestinian children, destroying Palestinian homes and property, or supporting Israeli settlement expansion in occupied territories.

The bill focuses heavily on the detention and treatment of Palestinian children by Israeli military forces. According to the legislation, hundreds of Palestinian children between ages 12 and 17 are detained annually and tried in Israeli military courts. The bill cites reports documenting that many of these children allegedly experience physical violence, interrogation without parents or lawyers present, and detention in isolation. It would prohibit U.S. military funds from supporting these detention practices, including torture, stress positions, solitary confinement, and forced confessions.

Beyond detention, the bill addresses home demolitions and property seizure in the West Bank. It notes that Palestinian homes face demolition under Israeli planning rules that make it nearly impossible for Palestinians to obtain building permits—between 2016 and 2020, over 99 percent of Palestinian permit applications in certain areas were rejected. The bill would prevent U.S. military aid from supporting these demolitions or the forced displacement of Palestinian civilians. It also prohibits funds from supporting further Israeli territorial annexation in the West Bank.

The bill requires the State Department to certify annually whether U.S. military aid to Israel has been used for these prohibited activities, and it directs the Government Accountability Office to audit how Israel spends money designated for purchasing military equipment. If passed, this would represent a significant shift in how Congress oversees military assistance to Israel, making human rights compliance a condition of receiving American military funding.

Defending the Human Rights of Palestinian Children and Families Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act

McCollum, Betty

<html><body bgcolor="#FFFFFF">Defending the Human Rights of Palestinian Children and Families Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act This bill limits U.S. assistance to Israel and establishes reporting requirements related to Israel's activities in the West Bank and its expenditures for offshore procurement. (Offshore procurement involves spending U.S. security assistance from the Foreign Military Financing program on Israeli-origin rather than U.S.-origin defense articles.) Specifically, the bill prohibits the use of any funds that are made available for assistance to Israel to support (1) military detention, interrogation, abuse, or ill treatment of Palestinian children; (2) seizure, appropriation, or destruction of Palestinian property and forcible transfer of civilians in the Israeli-controlled West Bank; or (3) certain activities to facilitate unilateral annexation by Israel of West Bank territory. The Department of State must report on the nature and extent of such activities carried out by Israel. Further, the Government Accountability Office must submit to Congress a report on related topics, such as (1) identifying specific programs and items to which funds for offshore procurement in Israel have been allocated, (2) identifying all end-use monitoring to which Israel is subject with respect to U.S.-origin defense articles, and (3) assessing the extent to which offshore procurement funds have supported illegal Israeli settlement activity in the occupied West Bank. </body></html>