Carol Coakley, a member of the Massachusuetts Democratic State Committee (DSC) has proposed a resolution the thrust of which is to ask the DSC to oppose the Israeli settlements as an obstacle to peace. There was a hearing, Wednesday night, April 19, 2017, before a Resolution Subcommittee of the DSC. Ten spoke in favor of the resolution. Three opposed. The subcommittee voted to table the resolution and to so report at the meeting of the DSC this Saturday.
There has been intense opposition to the resolution from the Boston Jewish Community "Relations Council and Steven Grossman, former chairman of the National Democratic Party.
Here is the written testimony I gave to the subcommittee members after I testified for 3+ minutes.as well as links to two related articles.
MEMORANDUM
TO:
Members
of the Resolutions Committee
Massachusetts
Democratic State Committee
FROM:
Ron Fox
RE:
Resolution
on Israel’s Settlements as an Obstacle to Peace
DATE:
April 19, 2017
THE SETTLEMENTS
ARE AN OBSTACLE TO PEACE
I
am a 77 year old resident of Marblehead involved in Jewish organizations
locally and nationally since my bar mitzvah in Temple Beth El in Lynn.
Israel
occupied the West Bank in 1967 and what is supposed to be only temporary has
become illegal and is the longest occupation in the world.
The
transfer of Israeli citizens to the West Bank in 1967 violated the 4th
Geneva Convention and was contrary to a legal opinion of a lawyer for Israel’s Foreign
Ministry
For
the last 45 years, since 1972, not a day has gone by where I have not been
aware of Israel’s violations of the human rights, and devaluation, of
Palestinians caused by its settlement policies.
The
growth of the settlements from one settlement with 100 squatters (not permanent
settlers but illegal trespassers) in 1967 to 123 now with 350,000 (not
including 250,000 in East Jerusalem) and the need to maintain and protect the
squatters (many religiously fanatic zealots from Brooklyn) has spawned numerous
additional obstacles to peace, including:
unequal distribution
of water, denying Palestinians fair access to minimal water while allowing squatters
enough for irrigation and pools;
a massive theft
of land from Palestinians leading to Israel taking control of over 40% of the
West Bank;
the destruction
of over 48,000 homes and other structures since 1967 (very few for security
reasons);
the building of
a wall, 85% inside the green line separating families from their lands, schools
and businesses;
the ignoring and
overlooking of squatters and the IDF destroying 800,000 olive trees;
the establishment
of military law for Palestinians and Israeli civil law for squatters;
the failure to enforce
criminal laws against squatters while punishing Palestinians for the same
actions;
the restricting of
movement by constructing many checkpoints and physical barriers unrelated to security concerns, resulting in employment
and medical complications; and
the imprisonment
of thousands of Palestinians, sometimes more than a year, in administrative
detention without ever charging them
with a crime, leading to today’s humanitarian
based hunger strike.
WHO
OPPOSES THE SETTLEMENTS
The
UN General Assembly has passed hundreds of resolutions since 1967 condemning or
criticizing Israel’s occupation, settlement policy and other violations of
Palestinian human rights.
The
US, since 1972, has voted in favor of 20 UN resolutions while vetoing 88.
Recently a UN committee found that many of these
obstacles to peace taken together are evidence for a finding that Israel is
guilty of the crime of apartheid.
The
4th Geneva Convention forbids the transfer of an occupier of its
civilians into occupied territory and the International Criminal Court defines it
as an indictable war crime.
Six former heads of Israel’s security agency, Shin
Bet, in the powerful movie, Gatekeepers, deplored most of the political leaders as
being indifferent to negotiations with their Arab enemies. One, Mr. Shalom,
said, “We have become cruel. To ourselves as well, but mainly to the occupied
population”.
Archbishop
Desmond Tutu in 2002 said “Over 35 new settlements have been constructed this
year. Each one is a step away from the safety deserved by the Israelis
and two steps away from the justice owed to the Palestinians. If apartheid
ended, so can the occupation, but the moral force and international pressure
will have to be just as determined.”
An Israeli -Yitzhak Frankenthal on July 27, 2002
said “My
beloved son Arik, my own flesh and blood, was murdered by Palestinians. The
Palestinians … have been ready to make peace with us; it is we who are
unwilling to make peace with them
Nine
mainstream Christian denominations/organizations, including the Methodists, are
so opposed to settlements that they have adopted resolutions not to buy
settlement goods.
As
of September 14, 2015, 136 (70.5%) of the 193 member states of the United
Nations have recognized the State of Palestine.
US
presidents including Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and Barack Obama have
either declared the settlements illegal or an obstacle to peace..
Secretary of State John Kerry 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 and is a deliberate obstacle to peace.
Jewish
groups, including Jewish Voice for Peace, J-Street and Americans for Peace Now
have stated their opposition to the settlement policies of Israel.
A
Pew Research Center survey in 2013 that 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.
HAS THE SETTLEMENT
POLICY KILLED THE TWO STATE SOLUTION DEAD?
Israel’s aggressive settlement policy has made the
establishment of a viable contiguous Palestinian state (a generally
acknowledged path to peace) physically
and politically nearly impossible.
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.”
In 2015 Netanyahu pledged that there would be no Palestinian
state on his watch. This should
surprise no one. Since 1967, Israel has pursued a policy, as promoted by
Vladimir Jabotinsky in the 1920’s; i.e., the full annexation of the West Bank
(code words “Judea and Samaria”).
WHO SUPPORTS THE
SETTLEMENTS
The
Congress of the United States and President Trump’s newly appointed Ambassador
to Israel, David Friedman.
CONCLUSION
Failure
to support this resolution authorizes: the maintenance of what is now the
longest occupation in the world; increased illegal transfers of Israeli citizens
to settlements; more extensions of the illegal wall; continued violations by
Israel of international human, civil and criminal laws with their attendant
deaths and destruction of property and the death of the two state solution.
Ironically,
the settlements and their attendant abuse and humiliation and, frankly,
terrorization of Palestinians are also contrary to the core values of Judaism.
As stated by Rabbi Ben-Zion Gold, who recently passed away, the former director
of Harvard Hillel;
“The Jewish
settlements on the West Bank are a grave and dangerous mistake that have done
much harm to Israel. Micah. ‘He has told you, O man, Only to do justice and to
love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God.’ By all means, Humbly.”
Israel’s
settlement policy is un-American, undemocratic, unjust and an obstacle to
peace. As stated by Martin Luther King, Jr., ”There can be no justice without
peace and there can be no peace without justice.”
I urge
the committee to vote in favor of this resolution.
http://masspeaceaction.org/opponents-of-resolution-one-sided/
