Shame on the United States Senate and the Hypocritical PEP's!!!!!

Yesterday the United States Senate passed S.1, the unconstitutional anti-BDS bill a vote of 77-23. Here are the Democratic senators (some are PEP’s – Progressive Except for Palestine) who believe that those who support BDS deserve to be punished for doing so:

Bennet (D-CO);  Blumenthal (D-CT); Cantwell (D-WA); Cardin (D-MD); Casey (D-PA); Coons (D-DE); Cortez Masto (D-NV); Duckworth (D-IL); Hassan (D-NH);Jones (D-AL); Klobuchar (D-MN); Manchin (D-WV); Menendez (D-NJ); Murray (D-WA); Peters (D-MI); Rosen (D-NV); Schumer (D-NY); Sinema (D-AZ); Smith (D-MN); Stabenow (D-MI); Tester (D-MT); Warner (D-VA);  Whitehouse (D-RI); Wyden (D-OR)

The 77 members the United States Senate are now on record as saying that my abbreviated list below of Israel’s violations of the international human rights of Palestinians (a few of the reasons I support BDS) do not reach a sufficient level of concern for United States citizens to be allowed to pressure Israel into ending them. This Senate continues to cement its place on the wrong side of history as its supports, encourages and blesses Israel’s cruelty and brutality:   

The illegal occupation of the West Bank which began in 1967.  On November 22, 1967, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 242 noting its charter commits states to renounce the acquisition of territories and then saying compliance requires “Withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict.” Israel has been in violation of the United Nations Charter Article 2 and Resolution 242 for 50 years as of this past June 10. It is the longest violation in the world.;

The illegal settlements beginning in early September, 1967, when Prime Minister Levi Eshkol approved the first settlement in the West Bank by Jewish Israelis, Kfar Etzion , despite the opinion of Legal Counsel to the Foreign Ministry, Theodor Meron, who wrote unequivocally, "My conclusion is that civilian settlement in the administered territories contravenes the explicit provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention"; i.e., “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies”. As of 2017, there are now 123 settlements where approximately 350,000 Jewish Israeli squatters live in government subsidized or privately financed settlements built on confiscated Palestinian land plus 200,000 squatters in East Jerusalem under Israel’s unrecognized claim of annexation. West Bank’s squatters are citizens of Israel, live under its civil code, and have full Israeli voting rights while its 2.5 million West Bank Palestinians live in 100% segregated communities under military law;

The killing and injuring over 100,000 Palestinians; including the recent murder by Israeli settlers of a Palestinian father of four during a raid on the al-Mughayyir village in the central occupied West Bank district of Ramallah on Saturday night. Palestinian officials and local media outlets reported that a group of Israeli settlers raided the village under the protection of armed Israeli soldiers — a common occurrence in areas of the West Bank located close to settlements. There has been an increase of hate crimes by Jewish squatters by 69% in 2018 over 2017;

The torturing of over 10,000 Palestinians;

The unequal access to water, restricting the availability of water for the Palestinian population while providing ample water to squatters for irrigation and pools;

The theft of Palestinian land, - using extrajudicial process to now control 60% of the West Bank;

The destruction of homes (almost 50,000) since 1967 (2% for security reasons); 

The building a wall 85% in the West Bank, separating Palestinians from lands and schools;

The construction of apartheid roads in the West Bank where travel by Palestinians is prohibited;

The destruction of 800,000 olive trees (equal to destroying all the trees in Central Park 33 times), the source of income for many Palestinians;  

The establishment of two separate legal systems - one (military) law for Palestinians and another (Israeli) law for squatters as well as failing to enforce criminal laws against squatters for killing Palestinians while punishing Palestinians for minor infractions;  

The restriction of movement by creating numerous checkpoints, most not for security purpose but simply to harass and humiliate Palestinians by waiting in long lines to enter Israel for work or medical treatment or to get from one West Bank town to another for family or business reasons;

The placement in administrative detention thousands of Palestinians for prolonged periods of time, without informing them of charges and/or without trial, 446 as of July 2014;

The four invasions of choice by Israel into Gaza since 2006, using excessive force (which some believe amounts to war crimes), 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 and, most recently the murders of 210 Palestinians and the wounding of 1800 in the Gaza Strip in the six month March of Return beginning with the Passover Massacre on March 30, 2018 as Palestinians  protested along the fence with Israel demanding their right to return to the homes and land their families were expelled from 70 years ago;

The 3 year old uber-malicious Canary Mission, an online blacklist that smears students & faculty critical of Israeli state policies, writes distorted descriptions about them & tells prospective employers not to hire them;

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) officially ceasing all assistance to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. Since he took office, President Trump has slashed some $500 million in US aid to Palestinians, leaving many organizations and aid programs strapped for cash;

The announcement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week that he would be expelling the Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH), an international observatory task force that monitors Israeli human rights violations in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron; 

Identification with racists like Roseanne Barr who said “settlers are the pioneers at the forefront of the State of Israel” and compared BDS to a Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses: while in Jerusalem she was accompanied by Culture Minister Miri Regev whose admiration for Barr was on open display. The two also share the trait of being racist loudmouths: Regev has called African refugees a “cancer” and openly stated that she is “happy to be a fascist”.

Shame on the United States Senate and the hypocritical PEP's!!!!!