Today begins a host of protest activities to End Israel’s Occupation of the West Bank (and Gaza by siege) throughout the world, especially in Israel itself. In the United States, on June 10, such activities will take place in dozens of cities around the country, with the main rally centered in Washington, DC. But in one corner of the country, a weekly protest has taking place for many months, perhaps years, in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Weekly Vigil

Every Friday
4:15 – 5:30 pm
Summit & Snelling, St. Paul, Minnesota

All are Welcome!
Please Bring a Sign

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Palestinians have lived under an illegal Israeli occupation since 1967, preventing them from establishing their own state on their homeland.

There are now millions of Palestinians who are refugees due to Israel’s refusal to recognize their right under international law to return to their own homes since 1948.

Palestine is Shrinking

The Six Day War of June 1967 resulted in Israel occupying the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Gaza, Sinai and the Golan Heights. The United Nation Security Council Resolution 242 adopted November 22, 1967, called for Israel to withdraw from the territories it had occupied in June. In Resolution 242 as affirmed by Resolution 338 in October 1973, the Council stated the principle of “the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war. “Article 47 of The Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 forbids the occupying power to transfer its own civilian population into occupied territory. Resolution 242 called for a “just and lasting peace” based on a trade-off of land for peace.

Every United States government until the current one has recognized Resolution 242 as a call to the 1967 pre-war borders and the basis for any peace settlement. The reason this is not as simple as it sounds is due to one word: THE. The Israelis claim their version of Resolution 242 says “territories” not “the territories,” which gives them the option to draw their own lines.

George Orwell would of course appreciate Israel’s thinking on the matter. “Not `THE’ territories” really means that IT IS possible to acquire another’s territory by war. The line Israel wishes to draw now extends to the Jordan River as indicated by the latest stage in these maps.

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Sponsored by the WAMM (Woman Against Military Madness) Middle East Committee.

http://www.worldwidewamm.org/home.html

Facts are what they are. That Palestine is shrinking is not only an understatement, it is a measure of Israel’s insincerity in regard to peace. The land for peace principle went down the tubes during the Oslo period when settlement activity in the West Bank and Gaza doubled. During the same period, as today, Israel has refused all peace proposals, most recently even hesitating about its unilateral disengagement placing Palestinians into bantustans, while it annexes the entire West Bank (Judea and Samaria to Israeli school children).

Time to increase activism: join the End the Occupation protest in Washington DC or a city near you.

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