The UN Resolution and Secretary Kerry's explanation for the US abstention demanding Israel
cease all settlement activities is fully justified but does not go far enough
in that it fails to take into account that the two state solution is
dead.
While I have been involved with the Jewish community nearly
all my life, serving on local and national Jewish organizations, it has only
been in the last 44 years, since 1972, that I have observed and been a critic
of Israel’s illegal occupation, illegal settlements and violations of UN
resolutions and the international human rights of Palestinians.
ISRAEL'S SETTLEMENT POLICY
Vladimir Jabotinsky, in the 1920s, preached a ``Greater
Israel," on both sides of the Jordan with a Jewish majority outweighing
the Arab population, to be won by force and guarded, in his famous phrase, by
an ``Iron Wall" which was needed to protect the enclave while they
established a majority as quickly as possible.”
In 1967, contrary to the written opinion of the Legal
Counsel for Israel’s Foreign Ministry, Theodore Meron, that civilian settlement
in the administered territories contravenes the Fourth Geneva Convention,
Israel approved the first settlement in the West Bank, Kfar Etzion, then
another in Hebron in 1968.
From 1968 on, each successive Israeli government has pursued
Jabotinsky’s doctrine, encouraged and often gave financial incentives to encourage
Jewish Israelis to move to the West Bank, investing significant resources in
establishing and expanding the settlements there.
By 1980 there were 53 settlements with 12,500 settlers
(because of their illegal status, I refer to as “squatters”) and today, 123
settlements with 350,000 squatters. Here is a quote from a friend: “The
face of modern day apartheid. Rare, perhaps never before seen depiction
and explanation on mainstream television, using maps, to show how Israel
dispossesses Palestinians in violation of international law and makes a two
state settlement impossible.” This is the
video of a segment he referred to on MSNBC yesterday just prior to Kerry’s
speech.
INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS CAUSED BY SETTLEMENTS
The settlements violate international human rights laws,
international criminal laws, hundreds of UN actions, the fundamental and core
values of Judaism and American values of democracy, equality and justice. In
addition, their existence has led Israel to violate many other human and civil
rights of Palestinians, including Israel: stealing West Bank land from the
Palestinians; taking control over 40% of the West Bank; destroying over 48,000
homes and other structures since 1967 (very few for security reasons); building
a wall, 85% inside the green line separating families from their lands, schools
and businesses; overlooking squatters and the IDF destroying 800,000 olive
trees; illegally establishing one (military) law for Palestinians and another
(Israeli) law for squatters; failing to enforce criminal laws against squatters
while punishing Palestinians for the same actions; illegally restricting
movement by constructing many checkpoints and physical barriers (many unrelated
to security concerns resulting in difficulty in getting to jobs and medical
assistance; denying Palestinians fair access to minimal water while
allowing ample water to irrigate settlements; holding thousands of
Palestinians, sometimes more than a year, without ever charging them with a
crime.
NOT TO SPEAK OF ISRAEL’S FOUR INVASIONS OF GAZA
On four occasions since 2006, Israel has chosen to invade
Gaza through wars of choice, using excessive force, including in 2014 in which
over 2000 Palestinians, mostly women and children and two-thirds civilians,
were killed and over 96,000 houses and structures were destroyed or damaged.
There is evidence that Israel initiated these invasions and/or used minor acts
to justify them. Some experts believe that Israel’s actions included war
crimes.
OPPOSITION TO THE SETTLEMENTS
The settlements have been opposed by:
Hundreds of actions of the UN General Assembly and Security
Council since 1967;
The International Criminal Court definition of the transfers
by an occupier of its own civilian population into occupied territory as a War
Crime;
The Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949: Article 49 stating
“The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian
population into the territory it occupies”;
Nine mainstream Christian denominations/organizations
resolutions not to buy settlement goods;
Foreign governments (as of September 14, 2015, 136 (70.5%)
of the 193 UN member states have recognized the State of Palestine);
US Presidents including Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, and
Barack Obama;
Secretary of State John Kerry, who, on December 4, 2016,
warned that the building of Israeli settlements was undermining any hope of an
agreement to allow two states to live side by side;
Jewish groups including;
J-Street, which has called upon the US Treasury Department
to review the tax-deductibility status of groups that support settlement
activity in the West Bank;
Americans for Peace Now’s legislative director recently
urged the UN Security Council to finally take action to send a clear message to
Israel that the international community stands by the two-state solution and
unambiguously rejects the Israeli settlement policies and
Jewish Voice for Peace has opposed the occupation and the
settlements
Jewish Americans including;
The signers of a Boston Globe full page ad
A Pew Research Center survey in 2013 found that “just 17% of
American Jews think the continued building of settlements in the West Bank is
helpful to Israel’s security; 44% say that settlement construction hurts
Israel’s own security interests.
SUPPORT FOR THE SETTLEMENTS
The foremost, and one of very few, supporter in the world of
the settlements is:
The Congress of the United States
THE RESOLUTION AND SECRETARY KERRY’S STATEMENT DID NOT
GO FAR ENOUGH
I do object, however, to the action of the UN, and Kerry’s
statement explaining the US action in abstaining as not going far enough. Secretary
Kerry’s speech focused on the settlements and made passing references to the
human rights violations by Israel. For a US high official to powerfully
condemn Israel for anything is certainly positive. Many in this country will
have heard for the first time a well thought out presentation blasting Israel
for trampling on the rights of Palestinians. However, Kerry’s main point
was that the US abstained (NOTE the US did not vote for it) to preserve the two
state solution and he provided evidence of decades of Israel’s adamant refusal
to comply with US demands that it discontinue its support for the building of
settlements. Since preserving the two state solution is consistent with
US values such as democracy, equality, justice and dignity, the US did not veto
(NOTE despite Israel acting contrary to US principles for decades, we gave
Israel a $38B commitment).
THE TWO STATE SOLUTION IS DEAD
In the same way, the resolution should have gone further.
Since it did not call for dismantling all illegal settlements, perhaps, because
the “facts on the ground” make that unrealistic, the resolution which “stresses
that the cessation of all Israeli settlement activities is essential for
salvaging the two state solution” should have instead acknowledged that the two
state solution is dead the result of Israel’s aggressive settlement policy
making the establishment of a viable contiguous Palestinians state physically
and politically impossible. The map shown in the video should be convincing
evidence of that. Secretary Kerry’s point is that the alternative, one state,
is unacceptable, but, if it results, it could only be Jewish OR a democracy. It
cannot be both. Since one state IS the only alternative made possible by
Israel’s 50 year expansion of settlements, the US should have voted for the
resolution and Secretary Kerry should have added; “The two state solution is
dead. There are now only two choices – a Jewish state or a democracy. US values
and principles demand that the one state NOT be a theocracy but a democracy
with equality and basic human rights for all. We encourage the parties to sit
down and explore various options for such a state and hope that they will look
at various role models such as Switzerland. Since the present situation of
separate and unequal is unacceptable, in order to move this process along “with
all deliberate speed”, we will support reasonable and responsible actions of
the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement.”
Jimmie Carter, in the Prospect, a UK magazine, said: At this
moment there is zero chance of the two-state solution… (Israel’s Prime
Minister) .. does not now and has never sincerely believed in a two-state
solution for Israel and Palestine” and Thomas Friedman in an op-ed published on
February 10, 2016, said, “The peace process is dead. It’s over, folks, so
please stop sending the New York Times Op-Ed page editor your proposals for a
two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians.”
CONCLUSION
The resolution applies positive pressure on Israel to end
its long-standing goal of annexing the West Bank (code words “Judea and
Samaria”).
I look forward, however, to the day when the Congress of the
United States, federal, state and local governments move away from the
wrong side of history and lead the world in putting pressure on Israel. Such
pressure would include supporting the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS)
movement as a legitimate Constitutionally protected action rather than
anti-Semitism.
The goals would be: the end of the longest occupation in the
world; dismantling or opening up the illegal settlements in the West Bank to
Israelis and Palestinians; the end of violations of the human rights of
Palestinians; acknowledgement that the two state solution is dead; and support
for efforts to create one state with liberty and justice and equality for all
Israelis and Palestinians.
May 2017 finally bring us closer to peace with justice for
Israelis and Palestinians.
December 30, 2016
