SUPPORT AN END TO ISRAEL’S DETENTION AND MISTREATMENT OF PALESTINIAN CHILDREN

 

Understanding the Issues:

• Israel prosecutes in military courts as many as 700 Palestinian children each year – 10,000 children since 2002. They are not allowed attorneys. Israel is the only country in the world that systematically tries children in military courts. Right now, hundreds of children are in military prisons.
• The Israeli military routinely uses violence on as many as 3/4 of all detained children – chokeholds, beatings, solitary confinement, sleep deprivation, verbal attacks, and emotional abuse, and threats that extort confessions.
• Since 2000, over 1,800 children have been killed in occupation-related violence.
• All of this in direct violation of international conventions. Israel ratified in 1991 the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, committing Israel to providing all children with a safe childhood and protection to ensure that childhood is a time free from insecurity, violence and abuse.
• Read more here.

What everyone can do to help!

1. SUPPORT LEGISLATION: H.R. 4391 – Promoting Human Rights by Ending Israeli Military Detention of Palestinian Children Act.   Introduced by Rep. Betty McCollum (202-225-6631).

• Ask your representatives to co-sponsor H.R. 4391. (Talking points above & on back.)
  • Michelle Lujan Grisham (NM D1): 202-225-6316, 505-346-6781
  • Steve Pearce (NM D2): 202-225-2365, 575-522-0771
  • Ben Ray Lujan (NM D3): 202-225-6190, 505-984-8950
• Direct email to your legislators: here
• Call the members of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs listed below.

2. Sign the online petition for No Way to Treat a Child campaign: here

3. Promote the #nowaytotreatachild campaign on all your social media:

http://nwttac.dci-palestine.org/about 

4. Join the campaign and support the cause:  here

5. Educate yourself and friends:

https://www.facebook.com/nowaytotreatachild/ 

6. Get involved locally! Have these groups speak at your organization meetings or join these groups:

     You can always check with the Albuquerque Center for Peace and Justice – 505-268-9557

• Jewish Voice for Peace – albuquerque@jewishvoiceforpeace.org
• American Friends Service Committee – mbrazil@afsc.org
• Friends of Sabeel ABQ – rerickson56@comcast.net
• Santa Feans for Justice in Palestine – Facebook; or  http://www.santafeansforjusticeinpalestine.org/ 
• Amnesty International Group 462 – here
• Stop the War Machine – Stopthewarmachine@hotmail.com
• The Red Nation –  https://www.facebook.com/therednation 
• Showing Up for Racial Justice – surjabq@gmail.com

TALKING POINTS for H.R. 4391

Promoting Human Rights by Ending Israeli Military Detention of Palestinian Children Act

Bill Summary:

This bill prohibits U.S. assistance to Israel from being used to support the military detention, interrogation, or ill-treatment of Palestinian children in violation of international humanitarian law or the use against Palestinian children of: (1) torture, inhumane, or degrading treatment; (2) physical violence or psychological abuse;  (3) incommunicado or administrative detention; (4) solitary confinement; (5) denial of parental or legal access during interrogations; or (6) force or coercion to obtain a confession.  The Department of State shall annually submit to Congress: (1) a certification that none of the funds obligated or expended in the previous fiscal year for assistance to Israel have been used to support any of such activities; or (2) if the State Department cannot make such certification, a report describing each activity and the amount of funds used by Israel in violation of this bill. The State Department shall include in each annual report on the barring of development assistance to a country that engages in human rights violations a description of the nature and extent of detention, interrogation, or ill-treatment of Palestinian children by Israeli military forces or police in violation of international humanitarian law.

24 Co-sponsors – list here

Why should MoCs support and vote yes to bill H.R. 4391?

• The U.S. provides $3.8 Billion in military aid to Israel every year.
• Nothing prevents Israel from using this aid to mistreat Palestinian children.
• H.R. 4391 would bring transparency to how Israel uses American aid and would protect children.

Also will help create movement toward equal justice under the law, and create conditions that could lead to a just and lasting peace.

Call the House Committee on Foreign Affairs members. ALL NUMBERS START 202-

Chairman Ed Royce R-CA, Commt. office – 225-5021. Francis Rooney R-FL , Vice Chairman – 225-2536

Eliot Engel D-NY, Ranking Member – 225-2464.     Ami Bera D-CA, Vice Ranking Member – 225-5716

REPUBLICANS Christopher Smith – NJ – 225-3765 Ileana Ros-Lehtinen – FL – 225-3931 Dana Rohrabacher – CA – 225-2415 Steve Chabot – OH – 225-2216 Jose Wilson – SC – 225-2452 Michael McCaul – TX –  225-2401 Ted Poe -TX –  225-6565 Darrell Issa – CA –  225-3906 Tom Marino – PA – 225-3731 Mo Brooks – AL –  225-4801 Paul Cook – CA – 225-5861 Scott Perry – PA – 225-5836 Ron DeSantis – FL – 225-2706 Mark Meadows – NC – 225-6401 Ted Yoho – FL – 225-5744 Adam Kinzinger – IL – 225-3635 Lee Zeldin – NY – 225-3826 Daniel Donovan – NY – 225-3371 Jim Sensenbrenner -WI – 225-5101 Ann Wagner – MO – 225-1621 Brian Mast – FL –  225-3026 Brian Fitzpatrick – PA – 225-4276 Tom Garrett – VA – 225-4711 John Curtis – UT – 225-7751

DEMOCRATS Brad Sherman – CA – 225-5911 Gregory Meeks – NY – 225-3461 Albio Sires – NJ – 225-7919 Gerald Connolly – VA – 225-1492 Ted Deutch – FL – 225-3001 Karen Bass – CA – 225-7084 William Keating – MA – 225-3111 David Cicilline – RI – 225-4911 Lois Frankel – FL – 225-9890 Tulsi Gabbard – HI – 225-4906 Joaquin Castro – TX – 225-3236 Robin Kelly – IL – 225-0773 Brendan Boyle – PA – 225-6111 Dina Titus – NV – 225-5965 Norma Torres – CA – 225-6161 Brad Schneider – IL – 225-4835 Thomas Suozzi – NY – 225-3335 Adriano Espaillat – NY – 225-4365 Ted Lieu – CA – 225-3976

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PDA CNM DIGEST June 12, 2018

DEMS NEED TO TALK ISSUES LIKE HEALTHCARE FOR ALL NOW
in response to attacks on Rep. Lujan Grisham

While PDACNM has had reason to be disappointed In Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s lack of support for many of our progressive issues, we do not agree with the latest attacks by her Democratic rivals concerning her involvement with Delta Consulting, the high risk pool management firm. From what we have learned, these accusations are misleading and unfounded. Yes, there is a not very significant discrepancy in the fiscal reporting and some questions about how the contract was obtained but the political debate should be about issues that most impact the lives of New Mexicans, given the dismal condition of our state after 8 miserable years of Republican corruption, incompetence and non-governance. There are plenty of unanswered questions PDACNM has for Rep. Lujan Grisham, but her Democratic rivals are not asking them. For example, why has she not co-signed  H.R. 676 : Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act.  This kind of legislation would do away with obscenely expensive medical costs and leave less need for companies like Delta Consulting.  Let’s talk issues and message.
Laura Stokes

Following is a statement by Dr. Nandini Kuehn Ph.D., MHA. She worked in NM for fifteen years as an independent Health Care Consultant.  This statement clarifies the need for the pool that Politico challenges.

“There is a story circulating right now on Politico here that makes some serious accusations against Michelle Lujan Grisham and her involvement with Delta Consulting which manages the high risk pool.  The story then attacks and calls into question the need for such a pool.  First, a portion of the pool’s enrollees are among the sickest and most expensive patients in our state. Once the ACA kicked in, anyone on the pool who was there because they were denied coverage for pre-existing conditions moved to the regular insurance pool on the Exchange. So the people who were left include the sickest and or the undocumented who are a substantial portion of the pool.  The Board is composed of consumers and experts from insurance plans who understand the financial risk this would pose to a small state and the small numbers on the NM Exchange.   Pool members with high risk, complex conditions cost tens of millions of dollars (this from a Board member of the pool who knows).  Dumping them into the Exchange general enrollment population would be a disaster for insurance plans that they might sign up with. And most importantly, the high intensity needs of these patients would get lost in the shuffle.  In this highly managed pool, their care is monitored and they are managed for the complexity of their condition.

As an insurer, Medicaid shares in the cost of the pool. The 43 million dollar savings to the state is grossly misstated by the author of the article, as every dollar that Medicaid puts into the pool generates 9 from the federal government back to the state!Most of the money that pays for the pool goes for staff and clinical management of the patient needs, not to the owners of the company.

Who does the story serve?  There is no attempt to claim that eliminating the pool would be better for the high-risk individuals whose needs, as said earlier, would get lost if they were subsumed into the Exchange.   It doesn’t serve the state which could lose Exchange carriers, nor the Exchange members who without the help of the Pool would pay much more in premiums.  Clearly it is a hatchet job on a candidate for Governor, and given the facts, the bias of the uninformed reporter who did not do adequate research has to be called into question.  Is she a Pearce mole?”

We do not need to be reminded that Steve Pearce will be a disaster for NM.

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PDA CNM DIGEST June 4, 2018

GO HERE TO SEE THE PROGRESSIVE CANDIDATES THAT PDA HAS ENDORSED AND SEND A CHECK OR VOLUNTEER.  LAURA MOSER (TX-07) IS ONE OF THE CANDIDATES UNDER ATTACK AND SHE WAS ABLE TO MAKE IT TO A RUNOFF IN THE PRIMARY BECAUSE OF THE SUPPORT SHE GATHERED IN RESPONSE TO THE DCCC’S ATTACKS AGAINST HER.