Israel’s declaration of six leading Palestinian human rights and civil society groups as “terrorist” organizations continues to have reverberations in Washington.
Today, Rep. Betty McCollum introduced a resolution calling on the U.S. House of Representatives to condemn Israel’s announcement, and specifically called for the Biden administration to:
(A) publicly condemn this authoritarian and antidemocratic act of repression by the Government of Israel against prominent Palestinian civil society organizations;
(B) publicly call on Israeli authorities to immediately end efforts aimed at persecuting, delegitimizing, and criminalizing Palestinian human rights defenders and civil society organizations; and
(C) publicly state the ongoing United States commitment to recognize the valuable work of Palestinian civil society organizations, including Addameer, Al-Haq, Defense for Children International–Palestine, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, the Bisan Center for Research and Development, and the Union of Palestinian Women Committees, and all other peaceful, legitimate efforts to protect the internationally recognized human rights of Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation.
Initial co-signers on the bill include Rep. Rashida Tlaib, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rep. Raúl Grijalva, Rep. Andre Carson, Rep. Ilhan Omar, Rep. Marie Newman, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, Rep. Cori Bush, and Rep. Chuy Garcia.
A press release put out by McCollum’s office quotes Khaled Quzmar, General Director for Defense for Children International – Palestine as thanking McCollum, and putting the Israeli attack in context. “After years of delegitimization and disinformation campaigns have failed to silence our work, Israeli authorities now choose to escalate repressive tactics by labeling civil society organizations as terrorists,” Quzmar says. “We are grateful once again for Congresswoman McCollum’s bold leadership condemning this decision and we resolve to continue defending Palestinian children and exposing human rights violations inherent in Israel’s military occupation of Palestinians.”
The hashtag #StandWithThe6 has been adopted on social media to show international solidarity with the six targeted Palestinian organizations. Following the announcement several organizations started encouraging members to contact their representatives in support of McCollum’s bill:
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Israeli Jews: “Stop Israel’s Apartheid!” Includes video!
https://jews4decolonization.wordpress.com/
“Stop Israel’s Apartheid!” #IsraelisAgainstApartheid
An Open Letter to the International Community
“We, Jewish Israelis, oppose the actions of the Israeli government and hereby declare our commitment to act against them. We refuse to accept the Jewish-supremacist regime and call upon the international community to immediately intervene in defense of the Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jerusalem, the Galilee, the Negev, al-Lydd, Yafa, Ramleh, Haifa and throughout historic Palestine.
“Jewish supremacy is the cornerstone of the Israeli regime, and its consistent objective is to transfer and obliterate the Palestinian people, their history, and their national identity. This objective manifests in continued acts of ethnic cleansing by means of evictions and home demolitions, brutal military occupation, denial of civil and human rights, and legislation of a series of racist laws culminating in the Nation-State Bill, defining the State as ‘the Nation State of the Jewish People’, and them only.
“All the above effectively form an Apartheid regime creating Bantustan-like and Ghetto-like areas for Palestinian native communities. We believe that Zionism is an unethical principle of governance that inherently leads to a racist Apartheid regime that has been committing war crimes and denying basic human rights from Palestinians for over seven decades. Such crimes and violations include: the destruction of hundreds of towns and villages and depopulating them of 750,000 Palestinians in 1948, alongside the active prevention of return of refugees; the systematic expropriation of Palestinians’ lands and transferring them to Jewish ownership under the auspices of the state; the occupation of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and the Golan Heights and the application of a colonizing military regime, ruling over millions of Palestinians; the gradual annexation of the territories occupied in 1967 by violently engineering demographics; the ongoing siege on the Gaza strip and persistent massacres of the Gazan population by the Israeli Air Force; political persecution of Palestinians throughout Palestine and the ongoing incitement against the political leadership and society at large; All of these atrocities take place due to the impunity Israel receives from the international community and especially the United States.” (cont’d)
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“In recent weeks, the Israeli government has up-scaled its attempts to seize Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem (especially in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood) and house Jewish settlers in them with the aim of completing the Judaization of the city that began in 1967. During the month of Ramadan, Israeli forces intensified their violent onslaught on the Al Aqsa Mosque compound while giving settlers the green light to vandalize and physically harm Palestinians in the West Bank, Jerusalem and throughout the ’48 territories. Mobs of settlers are acting under the auspices, and in coordination with the Israeli police. Israeli media is taking part in the unhinged incitement against Arab citizens of Israel. As a result, the Jewish mobs receive impunity for their violence, while hundreds of Palestinian citizens of Israel are arrested for protecting their homes and communities, or simply for being at the wrong place at the wrong time.
“Every so often, Israel commits yet another massacre against the population of the Gaza ghetto, while refusing anitiatives and proposals for ceasefire with Palestinian organizations in the Gaza strip, and while insisting on the continued pulverization of residential neighborhoods in the Gaza strip and the perpetuation of the brutal siege imposed on approximately two million people.
“As individuals who have tried for years to shift public opinion in Israel in order to change the foundations of the current regime, we have long come to the conclusion that it is impossible to change the Jewish supremacist regime without external intervention.
“We call upon the international community to intervene immediately in order to stop Israel’s current aggressions, to adopt the demands of the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement; to work towards the actualization of the Palestinian Right of Return and to bring about historic justice; to reach a just and democratic solution for all, based on the decolonization of the region and founding a state of all its citizens.”
#IsraelisAgainstApartheid
“After years of delegitimization and disinformation campaigns have failed to silence our work, Israeli authorities now choose to escalate repressive tactics by labeling civil society organizations as terrorists,” – Rep. Betty McCollum
Israel’s monopolizing and blockading Americaa mainstream media has put Americans in the dark about crimes they have been supporting. For example,
“Terrorism: How the Israeli state was won”
https://mondoweiss.mystagingwebsite.com/2017/01/terrorism-israeli-state
Well worth a read:
“By banning six Palestinian NGOs, Israel has entered a new era of impunityRaja Shehadeh
I founded al-Haq in 1979. Israeli now considers it to be a terrorist group, along with other vital humans rights organisations …
… Condemnations of the Israeli action has been extensive, including from the US state department, which sought clarification from its strategic partner. Yet statements alone will not suffice. Stronger measures will need to be taken if Israel is to reverse this declaration.
Al-Haq’s standing over the past 40 years proves its significance as a major defender of human rights. Its most important work during the past year has been the assistance it has given to the international criminal court in The Hague in its investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes. That the ICC might end up charging any Israelis with such crimes greatly worries Israel. For us Palestinians, it would herald an end to Israeli immunity from prosecution for its grave breaches of international law.
The defence minister’s statement will not convince anyone who has worked with Al-Haq and benefited from its extensive coverage of the human rights violations committed by Israel over the years. It is time for those concerned around the world to take a strong stance and work at convincing their governments to stop obstructing the ICC in its efforts at bringing to justice any Israeli official who has committed war crimes.”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/28/ngo-israel-human-rights-al-haq-palestinians
Good for the handful of progressive who seem to have a conscience, and are willing to stand up for these human rights groups. At least they are showing their honesty by supporting human rights, justice, and democracy. What Israel is doing is despicable, but then they have been acting despicable for decades, violating human rights, and any US President or Congress, will keep enabling them, and protecting their crimes. When they bomb Gaza, America makes sure they have the ammunition to re-load so that they can keep killing children while they sleep. I have no hope that the rest of Congress will become honest and stand up to the lobbies.