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Tell the Biden administration to condemn Israel’s announcement of 2,500 more settlement homes. |
Dear friend,
Millions of Americans are breathing a sigh of relief that executive orders have been signed to revoke the Muslim ban, reenter the Paris Climate Accords, resume funding for the World Health Organization, and more. But for Palestinians, no relief is on the horizon.
This week, as a welcoming gift (or more accurately a middle finger) to the Biden administration, the Israeli government approved 2,500 new settlement units in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Urge President Biden and soon-to-be Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to condemn Israel’s plans to construct even more Jewish-only homes on stolen Palestinian land. Blinken should reverse Pompeo’s ridiculous assertion that settlements don’t violate international law. They do! And Blinken should put conditioning U.S. military assistance to Israel on the table.
On January 12, Israel’s oldest and most prominent human rights organization, B’tselem, released a monumental report confirming what we have been saying for a long time: Israel isn’t a democracy, but an apartheid state. “One organizing principle lies at the base of a wide array of Israeli policies: advancing and perpetuating the supremacy of one group – Jews – over another – Palestinians,” B’tselem’s report states. Depending on whether Palestinians live in Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, or Israel proper, Israel grants them different levels of rights. But in none of these places do they experience equality with Jews. Even Palestinians with Israeli citizenship face around 60 laws of discrimination that make them second-class citizens. "Israel is not a democracy that has a temporary occupation attached to it: it is one regime between the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, and we must look at the full picture and see it for what it is: apartheid," said B’tselem director Hagai El-Ad.
Israel uses a variety of methods to maintain and advance Jewish supremacy: restricting freedom of movement and political participation, unequal immigration policies, and the expropriation of Palestinian lands through home demolitions, confiscation of land, and settlement construction. The call for 2,500 new settler homes is part of Israel’s one-state system of apartheid. The Biden administration should condemn the announcement of new settlement units and put Israel on notice that U.S. military aid may be conditioned if they continue. Email soon-to-be Secretary of State Blinkin now!
Towards justice for Palestine,
Ariel, Ann, Angela, Carley, Ciara, Cody, Danaka, Emily, Grace, Jodie, Leila, Leonardo, Maxine, Mary, Medea, Nancy, Paki, and Teri.
