January, 19 2017, 01:15pm EDT
Statement: Moving Embassy to Jerusalem is an Endorsement of Israel's Annexation Policies
As the incoming Trump administration is poised to fulfil its campaign promise to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, Jewish Voice for Peace offers the following statement from Executive Director Rebecca Vilkomerson on the destructive impacts of the move:
As the incoming Trump administration is poised to fulfil its campaign promise to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, Jewish Voice for Peace offers the following statement from Executive Director Rebecca Vilkomerson on the destructive impacts of the move:
"Israel celebrates the mythical "unification" of Jerusalem, but the actual Jerusalem could not be more divided, physically, economically, socially and politically. Palestinian inhabitants must constantly fight to maintain their residency status, which can be stripped away at any time. Palestinian neighborhoods suffer from systematic neglect and lack of municipal resources, and several neighborhoods containing some 60,000+ residents have been cut off from the city and from municipal services entirely by the construction of the apartheid wall. Home demolitions, either over lack of permits or as collective punishment, are frequent. Settlers are allowed to act with near impunity, seizing private Palestinian property and using archeological sites to displace Palestinian neighborhoods.
Since Israel unilaterally annexed the eastern half of Jerusalem in 1967, the international community has considered it to be occupied territory, a legal position just reaffirmed in United Nations Resolution 2334. Over the last several decades, Israel has implemented policies intended to push Palestinian Jerusalemites out of the city that amount to forcible transfer.
This is the reality that Palestinian residents of Jerusalem have faced for years. By moving the embassy to Jerusalem, the incoming Trump administration will cement the United States' complicity with Israel's occupation, discrimination and incitement in the city of Jerusalem, signaling a green light for future moves towards annexation.
Jerusalem is a symbol of holiness and hope for many people of many religions the world over. Moving the U.S. embassy there not only flies in the face of the international legal consensus, but also furthers the agenda of those who seek to re-cast a struggle for land, rights and sovereignty into a religious conflict.
With the increasing alignment of the incoming administration with Israel's pursuit of annexation and dispossession, we can only expect that the U.S. embassy move will be the first in a cascade of actions that will cause profound harm to the rights and lives of Palestinians and any hope for a peace based on equality and freedom for everyone in the region."
Jewish Voice for Peace is a national, grassroots organization inspired by Jewish tradition to work for a just and lasting peace according to principles of human rights, equality, and international law for all the people of Israel and Palestine. JVP has over 200,000 online supporters, over 70 chapters, a youth wing, a Rabbinic Council, an Artist Council, an Academic Advisory Council, and an Advisory Board made up of leading U.S. intellectuals and artists.
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Israeli Settlers, Soldiers 'Wiping Palestinian Communities Off the Map' in the West Bank
"While the attention of the world is focused on Gaza, abuses in the West Bank, fueled by decades of impunity and complacency among Israel's allies, are soaring."
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Israeli soldiers have either passively watched or participated in the uprooting of at least seven communities in the West Bank since October of last year, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday in a new report documenting surging settler violence in the occupied Palestinian territory.
The rights group interviewed dozens of eyewitnesses and examined video footage showing harassment and other abuse of Palestinians in the West Bank "by men in Israeli military uniforms carrying M16 assault rifles."
Following the Hamas-led October 7 attack on southern Israel, the Israeli military drafted more than 5,000 settlers into "regional defense" units in the West Bank, Haaretzreported earlier this year. The Israeli newspaper noted that "alongside this large-scale mobilization, the [Israel Defense Forces] has distributed some 7,000 weapons to the battalions as well as to settlers who were not recruited into the army but received them as civilians whom the army considers eligible to carry military arms."
HRW's investigation found that "armed settlers, with the active participation of army units, repeatedly cut off road access and raided Palestinian communities, detained, assaulted, and tortured residents, chased them out of their homes and off their lands at gunpoint or coerced them to leave with death threats, and blocked them from taking their belongings."
"Israeli settlers and soldiers are literally wiping Palestinian communities off the map," said Omar Shakir, HRW's Israel and Palestine director.
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The new report comes days after Israeli settlers—escorted by IDF soldiers—went on their latest destructive and deadly rampage in the West Bank, killing at least two Palestinians, injuring dozens, and setting homes and vehicles ablaze. At least 20 households were displaced after Israeli settlers burned down their homes.
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HRW's new report examines five West Bank communities that have come under attack by Israeli settlers, including one in which uniformed Israeli men armed with assault rifles entered tents and destroyed or stole people's belongings, abused residents, and threatened to kill them if they didn't leave the area.
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Following the latest wave of settler violence in the West Bank this past weekend, a coalition of human rights organizations said in a joint statement Wednesday that "the international community must swiftly and decisively pressure the government of Israel to halt these attacks and urgently de-escalate the situation."
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The measure in question would reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) for two years and massively expand the federal government's warrantless surveillance power by requiring a wide range of businesses and individuals to cooperate with spying efforts.
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Wyden's remarks came after the Senate narrowly approved a motion Tuesday to proceed to the FISA reauthorization bill ahead of Section 702's expiration at the end of the week. The Oregon senator, an outspoken privacy advocate, was among the seven members of the Democratic caucus who voted against the procedural motion.
Despite its grave implications for civil liberties, the bill has drawn relatively little vocal opposition in the Senate. A final vote could come as soon as Thursday.
Titled Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act (RISAA), the legislation passed the Republican-controlled House last week after lawmakers voted down an amendment that would have added a search warrant requirement to Section 702.
The authority allows U.S. agencies to spy on non-citizens located outside of the country, but it has been abused extensively by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and National Security Agency to collect the communications of American lawmakers, activists, journalists, and others without a warrant.
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More than two dozen House Democrats on Tuesday challenged the Biden administration's claim that Israel is using U.S.-supplied weapons in compliance with domestic and international law—an assertion made amid an ongoing World Court probe of "plausibly" genocidal Israeli policies and practices in Gaza.
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"We write to express our deep concern regarding the U.S. Department of State's recent comments regarding assurances from the Israeli government, under National Security Memorandum (NSM) 20, that the Israeli government is using U.S.-origin weapons in full compliance with relevant U.S. and international law and is not restricting the delivery of humanitarian assistance," the lawmakers wrote in a letter to the Cabinet members.
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While the lawmakers didn't mention the International Court of Justice's January 26
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A growing number of not only progressive lawmakers but also mainstream Democrats are calling for a suspension of U.S. military aid to Israel.
On Tuesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)—who was criticized earlier in the war for not calling for a cease-fire—stood beside a photo of a starving Gazan girl while declaring "no more money for" the far-right government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his "war machine."
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