| WASHINGTON
- August 14 - Members of the Green Party of the United States have expressed concern
that the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) has targeted activists from around the world
who are working for peace in Israel and the Palestinian territories, as well as
Palestinian and Israeli peace activists.
"Clearly, nonviolent protest and our solidarity is the only way that the
occupation will end," said Justine McCabe, co-chair of the Connecticut Greens
and member of the Green Party's International Committee. McCabe has assisted Palestinian
and international relief workers in Bethlehem and Ramalah.
"Sadly, the IDF's violent response today to these courageous internationals
is what peacefully resisting Palestinians have known on a steady basis for over
35 years," McCabe added. "Although they endure the same wretched conditions
as Palestinians while in the Occupied Territories, many of the internationals
can go home, back to safety to shore up for the next round. Palestinians living
under occupation have no safe place. They risk their lives every day just to remain
in their homes, on their own land."
According to eyewitness reports on August 7, Israeli police and soldiers used
percussion grenades, tear gas, and helicopters to quash a nonviolent demonstration
at the Huwara checkpoint near Nablus by Palestinian, American, French, and Irish
members of the International Solidarity Movement, including New York members of
Jews Against the Occupation.
McCabe noted that "this isn't the first time the IDF has used U.S. guns
to fire on U.S. citizens."
Greens have criticized the bipartisan support of the U.S. Congress and the
White House for Israel's continued illegal occupation of Palestinian territories,
which has led to the escalating slaughter of innocent people on both sides, invasion
and assassination, and the bulldozing of Palestinian homes to make way for Israeli
settlements.
"The media show us pictures and footage of the terrible, self-defeating
murder of innocent Israelis by Palestinian suicide bombers," said Holly Hart,
Green candidate for Lieutenant Governor of Iowa and member of People for Justice
in Palestine. "But few Americans are aware of the heroic efforts by many
Palestinians and Israelis to resolve the conflict through nonviolent negotiation
and resistance to Israel's sustained onslaught."
Columnist Robert Novak, writing in TownHall.com on June 17, revealed Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon's candid comments about his government's goals in a closed-door
meeting with U.S. Senators during Sharon's visit in June: "Sharon pointed
to no Israeli-Palestinian deal for at least 10 years" and "committ[ed]
himself to a hundred-year war against Arabs."
Sharon startled the Senators by calling for increased immigration to Israel
and reminding them that "the ancient boundaries of the 'Land of Israel' [Judaea
and Samaria, including the West Bank] are guaranteed to the Jewish people by Holy
Scripture."
"The only way we'll see Israel reverse its illegal treatment of Palestinians
and withdraw from the occupied territories is through massive pressure from the
U.S., including a threat to end aid to Israel," said Charles Pillsbury, Green
candidate for Connecticut's 3rd Congressional District. "Unfortunately, there
is nearly unqualified bipartisan support for the Sharon agenda, except for a very
few courageous Congressmembers such as Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D.-Ga.), who has
been targeted for defeat in her bid for reelection this year for her views. Sharon
is not only supported by Jewish pro-Israel lobbies but by even more powerful conservative
pro-Israel Christian fundamentalists -- the very people who are dictating Bush
policy."
The Green Party of the United States has joined human rights groups, the European
Federation of Green Parties, the Palestinian Authority, the U.N. Commission on
Human Rights, and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan in repeated calls for an international
protection force for all civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
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