WASHINGTON (Dispatches) – U.S. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib says the U.S. must stop enabling the killing of Palestinian children by the Zionist regime.
Her remarks came days after the killing of a 13-year-old Palestinian boy by the occupying regime’s army on Friday.
Tlaib is the first Palestinian-American woman elected to Congress. She condemned the killing of Mohammed Da’adas, a resident of the Askar refugee camp in Nablus, in the occupied West Bank.
Da’adas was shot in the stomach by Zionist troops during a protest against illegal settlements after last Friday’s midday prayer in Deir Al-Hatab. When she retweeted a post about the killing of the boy, Tlaib commented, “Our country must stop enabling the killing of children.”
Tlaib has frequently spoken out against the United States’ military support for the Zionist regime, and called for the protection of the Palestinians’ rights.
In an emotional speech at the House of Representative in May, Tlaib criticized President Joe Biden and other top officials for offering statements that she said did not acknowledge “Palestinian humanity.” “To read the statements from President [Joe] Biden, Secretary [of State Antony] Blinken, General [Lloyd] Austin and leaders of both parties, you would hardly know Palestinians existed at all.”
Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, are outspoken critics of the occupying regime’s policies toward the Palestinians and vocal supporters of the Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) movement. The pair has time and again said Congress should reconsider the annual U.S. aid to the occupying regime.
The United States and the regime signed an agreement in September 2016 for the regime to receive $38 billion in military assistance over the next decade, the largest such aid package in U.S. history.
Meanwhile, the American women’s grassroots movement Codepink tweeted: “13-year-old Mohammad Da’das [sic] was shot and killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank today, bringing the toll of Palestinian children murdered by Israel to at least 80.”
The group added, “Palestinian human rights organizations that seek justice for murdered or imprisoned children are being labeled ‘terrorist groups’ by the Israeli regime. The gall is absolutely sickening.”
According to reports of official figures, the occupying regime has killed more than 3,000 Palestinian children over the past 20 years. That’s an average of one child killed by Zionist troops every three days for at least two decades.