Kathryn Shihadah: Instead of the Taylor Force Act, Congress should consider the Rachel Corrie Act

A shocking report. Russia gets demonized daily in the media although it done nothing much wrong but Israel gets away with atrocities.

The U.S. Senate is debating a bill right now—the Taylor Force Act—that would prohibit foreign aid to the occupied Palestinian territories unless the Palestinian Authority ends stipends to the families of those who have been killed, injured, or imprisoned. Congressional reasoning is that the so-called “Martyrs’ Fund” encourages terrorism.

The United States currently gives The Palestinian Authority a relatively small amount of aid each year (in 2016 about $300 million, roughly 8 percent of what Israel receives); the Taylor Force Act would withhold about $230 million until the Fund disappears.

It is important to understand that this fund is not an incentive for Palestinians to commit terrorism. It is a social program to provide for the families of those killed, injured, or held prisoner by hostile forces.

The fund also supports Palestinians killed by Israel while using armed resistance–in the case of Taylor Force, a knife–against a country that has one of the most powerful, advanced militaries on earth.

Most of the fund provides for those killed or injured while peacefully demonstrating, defending their property, or going about their business, and the thousands wrongly imprisoned or detained without charge. This is the program that would be shut down by the Taylor Force Act. The fund also supports Palestinians killed by Israel while using armed resistance–in the case of Taylor Force, a knife–against a country that has one of the most powerful, advanced militaries on earth.

Proposed legislation that could make things better, not worse

Perhaps instead of the Taylor Force Act, Congress should bring some other bills to the floor—bills that would begin to address the real problems in Israel/Palestine.

Here are a few suggestions.

Rachel Corrie.

We could start with the Rachel Corrie Act, prohibiting the U.S. from giving aid to countries that practice home demolitions. Rachel Corrie was killed in 2003 as she worked in Palestine with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). Rachel, clearly visible with a neon vest and bullhorn, confronted an IDF soldier on a bulldozer, about to demolish the home of a Palestinian pharmacist, when she was run over in what is widely believed to be a deliberate act.

http://mondoweiss.net/2017/07/instead-congress-consider/