While President Biden is rushing to send military aid to Israel and is proclaiming Israel one of our closest allies, he seems to be forgetting that over the last 50 years Israel has settled over 400,000 Israeli Jews in the Occupied Territories, on land stolen from the Palestinians, in flagrant violation of Article 49 of the fourth Geneva Convention (to which both the U.S. and Israel are signatories, and which states in part “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.”).
The settlement policies have also been condemned by numerous UN Security Council resolutions dating back to the 1970s. It does great damage to our reputation abroad to associate ourselves so closely with a country doing what Iraq attempted to do to Kuwait, and what Russia is trying to do now to the Ukraine.
If Israel truly wants peace, the best way to achieve it is adhere to the traditions of Jewish religion and culture, roll back its settlement policies and conform to International Law. Israel had a chance to do this during the 1993-2000 Oslo Peace Process, but the Israeli leaders at the time valued territorial expansion over peace.
To our shame, the U.S. government supported this massive breach of International Law. The result, after seven years of peaceful co-existence, was another Intifada.
It’s time to move ahead. We must send no aid to Israel unless and until Israel abandons its settlement policies and complies with International Law.
Gomer Thomas
Arlington
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