A U.S. congresswoman from Minnesota has written to the State Department asking it to investigate whether foreign military aid to Israel should be withheld over the allegedly unlawful killing of two Palestinian teenagers by Israeli soldiers in May 2014.
Democratic Rep. Betty McCollum requested that the State Department investigate the killing of Nadeem Nawara, 16, and Mohammad Daher, 17, who were shot dead outside of Israel's Ofer military base in the West Bank in May 2014, according to Amnesty International.
McCollum wrote that the incident appears "to be a blatant example of an unlawful killing that merits both condemnation and action by the U.S." The letter was written Aug. 18 after Nawara's father, Siam Nawara, a Palestinian resident of the West Bank, visited her office seeking help regarding his son's death. The letter was released to the public Monday, reported The Times of Israel.
"On May 15, 2014, Nadeem was shot in the chest by an Israeli border policeman using an M-16 rifle," McCollum explained in her letter. "Most disturbing, Nadeem's murder was captured on video by local security cameras as well as international journalists. One can literally watch the murder of this Palestinian teenager as he walks innocently down the street. A sixteen year old youth, Mohammad Daher, was shot and killed in the same location one hour after Nadeem's murder. Like Nadeem, Mohammad was innocently walking down the street, and his murder was also captured on video."
She said forensic analysis of the video footage conducted by Defense for Children International/Palestine shows the two children "posed no threat to Israel forces at the time they were killed."
The deaths exemplify that "Israel's treatment of Palestinian youth in the Occupied West Bank is unacceptable and must not be tolerated by the U.S. or the international community," she said.
McCollum said she would like the State Department to determine whether the killings violated the Leahy Law, and if a violation is determined to have occurred, "then the 38th Company of the Israeli Border Police should be ineligible to receive future U.S. military aid and training and all border police involved in this incident should be denied U.S. visas as stipulated by the law."
U.S. taxpayers currently give Israel about $3.3 billion per year in aid, much of which Israel uses to buy military equipment, mainly from American companies, according to Fox News. Earlier this year, Israel reportedly asked the White House to increase aid to between $4.2 and $4.5 billion per year for the next 10 years.
McCollum also requested the case be raised with Israeli officials, "impressing upon them that the U.S. government expects a fair, transparent and credible trial. The person(s) responsible for the murder of this Palestinian youth must be held accountable."
A third request asked that "State Department officials be present to observe the conduct of the trial to ensure appropriate standards of justice are achieved."
