(Image credits: Michal Vexler)
Today at the US Embassy in Tel Aviv, Israeli activists protested the United States’s unconditional support for Israel and its ongoing “settlements project, oppression and apartheid.” Below is part of the statement announcing the protest titled “We Won’t Be ‘The US Aircraft Carrier in the Middle East'”:
Last week the United States vetoed the UN Security Council’s draft resolution condemning Israeli settlements, contrary to the position of the other 14 member states (including Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China, India and South-Africa), and the request of the Palestinians, the direct victims of the settlement project.
The US presents itself as fair player, a mediator and a conciliator between Israel and the Palestinians. In practice, however, it has other interests in the region and maintains “special security relations” with Israel, seeing Israel as “The US aircraft carrier in the Middle East”. Notwithstanding this massive economic and military support, it is the US’s active support of Israel’s crimes that maintains the Israeli occupation and apartheid, and therefore we see the US as a full accomplice in these crimes and in the violation of international law.
We point the finger at the criminal policies of the US and of the European Union
We are pointing the finger at the criminal policies of the US and the European Union. Without their military, economic and diplomatic aid, Israel will not be able to keep flaunting International Law and consensus, ignoring proposed peace initiatives and persisting with the settlements project, oppression and apartheid. All that without diminishing the State of Israel’s direct responsibility for these crimes.
A new campaign is currently being initiated against US and EU support of the Israeli occupation. We call on the US to join the international community in deed rather than just talk, in giving the Palestinian people its legitimate rights. The future campaign will also draw attention to the part played by Western states.
