US Funds 'Child Protection' While Alleging Israel Holds Hundreds of Palestinian Kids
According to Al Jazeera, a record 360 Palestinian children are in Israeli prisons, often without formal charges. This practice of administrative detention has been documented for decades, a systematic feature of the occupation since 1967. While the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has repeatedly condemned such actions, US policy remains steadfast. Just this week, Senator Lindsey Graham, who
received over $20,000 from pro-Israel PACs (based on OpenSecrets.org data) in the last cycle, advocated for unconditional aid to Israel, without mention of these children. One might wonder if the US State Department's annual 'Trafficking in Persons Report' — which often critiques allies for child exploitation — simply overlooked this particular 'record number of children detained.' Or perhaps, as
long as the children in question are Palestinian, they fall outside the 'human rights' considerations for certain elected officials. It's a miracle how some human rights reports manage to filter out inconvenient truths based on geography and political alliance.