Pro-Israel group denounces selection of McCollum as chair of House defense committee

The Zionist Organization of America(ZOA), a pro-Israel organization, has denounced the selection of Rep. Betty McCollum as chair of the House Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Defense.

The Subcommittee on Defense is a powerful House committee that has jurisdiction over the budget of the U.S. Defense Department.

Every military spending measure must be approved by the committee before being passed by the larger House.

“Rep. McCollum’s appointment as chair of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee places her in a position to do enormous damage to Israel, U.S. foreign policy and vital Israeli-U.S. cooperation on developing defense systems that benefit both countries,” said ZOA national president Mort Klein, ZOA chair Mark Levenson, ZOA director of government relations Dan Pollak and ZOA director of special projects Elizabeth Berney in a statement.

“McCollum will no doubt block and/or insert onerous requirements for Israel to ‘prove’ herself to be innocent of spurious charges, in order to thwart aid to and military cooperation with Israel. McCollum’s new position is thus a major threat to U.S. and Israeli security. Congress needs to remove McCollum from this position.”

The congresswoman is known as a staunchest critic of ‘Israel’ in Congress.

She has spent years talking about putting an end to human rights abuses around the world, including looking at human rights violations in ‘Israel’.

McCollum, who has championed the human rights of Palestinian children in Washington, introduced legislation in 2019 to ensure that US military aid to ‘Israel’ does not contribute to the abuse of minors.

The bill called ‘Promoting Human Rights by Ending Israeli Military Detention of Palestinian Children,’ shorthand, HR 4391.

It says that U.S. aid to ‘Israel’ shall be prohibited from being used to arrest, detain, abuse, torture or otherwise violate humanitarian law and the human rights of Palestinian children.

As a whole, the U.S. government provides ‘Israel’ with $3.8 billion annually in military aid. McCollum’s bill aims to cordon off money from being used to detain Palestinian children.

McCollum has been continuing to advocate against the occupation. In June 2020, she was one of 13 legislators to sign a letter vowing to condition aid to ‘Israel’ if it proceeds with its plans to annex large parts of the West Bank.

In 2020, she received the “Champion of Palestinian Rights Award” from American Muslims for Palestine (AMP).

She also was one of only 37 members of Congress who voted against the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006, which imposed harsh sanctions on Palestine and designated the territories controlled by the Palestinian Authority as a “terrorist sanctuary.”

As a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, she joined one colleague in opposing the bill moving out of committee. She made clear her reasoning then, saying the bill “would place so many restraints on aid to the Palestinian people, and so many restrictions on the administration’s ability to deal with the Palestinians, that even the State Department has opposed it.”

Also, McCollum called AIPAC a “hate group” and urged its boycott.

McCollum was also one of only 17 “no” votes against Rep. Bradley Schneider of Illinois’ resolution opposing the Global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDS), which works to end international support for Israel’s oppression of Palestinians and pressure ‘Israel’ to comply with international law.