While the candidates, Hillary and McCain, in particular, Obama, to a lesser extent, show no promise that they will bring peace to the Middle East, or finally settle the crux Israeli-Palestinian conflict, many peace activist groups continue their work to remove impediments. One such impediment is the 40 year long military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, considered the Occupied Palestinian Territories by the UN, even though Israel has managed to colonize 42% of the former since the late 1970s. Since that time, colonization has been the one and only purpose of the military occupation.
This report from the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation is about the recent Gaza strife and how Americans, through their tax contributions, contributed to it.
The US Campaign reported that since last Wednesday, Israel has killed at least 117 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, about half of whom were civilians and 22 of whom were children like the young ones shown above. In 2006, many more such children died among the more than 1200 Lebanese and 600 Palestinian civilians killed when Israel invaded on a pretext, while Bush egged them on.
When Arabs in the Middle East, especially Palestinians, see pictures like this one,
(Ammunition pulled from the body of a dead Palestinian: made in USA)
is there any reason why the should love Americans?
The (above Palestinian children and others) were likely killed with U.S. weapons-such as Boeing F-15’s and Lockheed Martin F-16’s fighter jets; Boeing Apache and Cobra Bell attack helicopters; and Hughes, Raytheon, General Dynamics, and Lockheed Martin air-to-surface missiles-paid for by U.S. taxpayers. In addition, Israel demolished Palestinian homes with Caterpillar bulldozers and coordinated its attacks with communications gear provided by Motorola-again paid for by U.S. taxpayers.
US taxpayers are therefore unwittingly complicit in the death and destruction witnessed over the past several days in Gaza. By permitting our government to supply Israel with weapons, they are also used to enforce the military occupation of Palestinians in the West Bank and the ongoing siege of Gaza, where starvation is being used as a tool to bring the Hamas government to its knees.
It is not gone without notice that Hamas has proposed a “crease fire” on numerous occasions, which would stop the rocket attacks on Sderot, but Israel has consistently rejected them or broader peace talks. Hamas’ view is that their attacks are only continued in retaliation for Israel’s targeted assassinations of Hamas members, usually by air, that have sometimes killed off entire families and innocent bystanders.
Israel, however, says that it does not negotiate with terrorists. It apparently prefers to repeat the cycles of violence, because it can always lay the blame for them at the door of Hamas as it did a few days ago. That twist of reality is part of the Israeli propaganda effort that our State Department has long participated in, and it is what Americans as well as Israelis hear. Israel is also continuing to use Hamas as its latest red herring to avoid the Bush-Rice peace initiative.
The US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation seeks to overcome the obstacles to peace in the Middle East by first ending Israel’s military occupation of the Palestinians, which has continued now for 40 years.
Israel’s massive human rights violations in the Gaza Strip over the past week demonstrate how important it is to have a national coalition like the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation organizing and advocating to end U.S. support for Israel’s illegal military occupation and human rights violations and to change U.S. policy to support human rights, international law, and equality for all.
If you would like to become a member of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, CLICK HERE.
The US campaign also has more than 250 member organizations. If your organization would like to apply for group membership, CLICK HERE.