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Israel as occupier
By Sr. Miriam Ward, Burlington Free Press 8/28/2004
The recent drive in Congress to repudiate the International Court of Justice's decision on the Israeli separation wall, and the Bush administration's approval of Israel's plans for 530 new settler homes, are further proof of how out of step the United States is with world opinion.
It is a sad result of the misinformation and falsehoods surrounding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that prevail in the U.S. media. If ever there were a case of "blaming the victim," Palestinians would be top of the list.
For 37 years Israel has occupied the West Bank and Gaza, seizing Palestinian land and water and imprisoning the people. Palestinians are:
*not building settlements and roads in Israel;
*not taking water from Israeli aquifers;
*not demanding permits for Israelis to travel from one town to another;
*not demolishing Israeli homes, businesses, olive groves and infrastructure;
*not imposing 30-day curfews on Israelis;
*not humiliating Israelis at checkpoints;
*not using F-16s, tanks and helicopters against a defenseless Israel.
*not building a thirty-foot wall on Israeli land;
Israel is the Occupier; Palestinians, the Occupied. The Occupation must end.
So must American illusions about the Occupation. [Letter abridged. Full text continues: "When the U.S. House of Representatives voted to censure the International Court of Justice's ruling against the Wall, they were defending the indefensible. And when the Administration ignores the global consensus regarding the illegality of Israel's settlements, it does further damage to the United States' already much-eroded moral standing in the world. Let us hope the Senate, when it reconvenes, does not make the same mistake."]
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