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Ending occupation is essential
By Miriam Ward, RSM, Rutland Herald (Burlington Free Press 6/5/2005) 6/4/2005
June 5, 2005 marks the 38th anniversary of the illegal Israeli Occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. For 38 years UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 calling for Israel to leave those territories have been on the books. In sharp contrast, the U.S. recently pushed for the immediate implementation of UN Resolution 1559 ordering Syria to withdraw troops from Lebanon.Nearly two generations of Palestinian children have grown up knowing no Israeli other than a soldier or settler with a gun pointed at them. The Geneva Conventions— principles of conduct for protection of civilians under occupation— have been trampled upon. Israeli anthropologist Jeff Halper calls it a "matrix of control": over every aspect of Palestinian life, exacerbated by the continued expansion of settlements and the building of the 25 foot wall, cutting the West Bank into Bantustans, separating the North from the South and both from East Jerusalem.Israel's Walter Cronkite, Haim Yavin, sums it up in his now-playing TV documentary, "Since 1967, we have been brutal conquerors, occupiers, suppressing another people."Meanwhile, the U.S. Congress reduced the $200 million funding for Palestinians, diverting $50 million to Israel to build watchtowers at the checkpoints. President Bush rightly says that a Palestinian state must be contiguous in order to be viable, yet calls Sharon's announcement of 3,500 more housing units at Maaleh Adumim "unhelpful." While the U.S. administration calls for democracy in the Middle East, it continues monetary and political support for its antithesis: colonization and suppression of Palestinians.Is it not in the interest of all, Palestinians, Israelis and the U.S., to abide by international law and end this strangulating Israeli Occupation?
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