Liberal Zionist organizations could provide Joe Biden with the political capital inside the Jewish community and Democratic Party to confront Israel on its recent designation of six Palestinian human rights organizations as “terrorist organizations.” But so far they have have done little to take on the designation and even offered a platform to the Israeli government to defend the charge. It’s little wonder the Biden administration is keeping its mouth shut.
Over 100 celebrities have signed an open letter criticizing the Israeli government for designating six human rights groups as terrorist organizations. “The vital work of these six organizations to protect and empower Palestinians and hold Israel accountable for its gross human rights violations and apartheid regime of institutionalized racial discrimination is precisely the work that Israel is trying to end,” reads the letter.
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz is trying to ban leading Palestinian human rights groups as alleged “terrorist” groups and has bragged of bombing Gaza to “the stone age.” So why are Democrats Chris Coons and Steve Cohen meeting with him and standing for photo opps? They don’t want to be on the wrong side of the Israel lobby.
Great news. Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern, a 25 year House veteran and co chair of the Human Rights Commission, issued a stiff letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying it is “urgent” matter for him to get past his “initial leeriness” and “firmly and unambiguously denounce” Israel’s hateful decree that six leading Palestinian human rights groups are “terrorist” organizations.
A response to Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s designation of 6 Palestinian civil rights groups as terrorist. “I understand the people who hate us so much that they want to kill someone. I understand people who want to kill me – not as a person they know, but simply as a Jewish Israeli, a representative of the master race that terrorizes them daily.”
The Biden administration will continue to issue “strong” condemnations of Israeli settlements but do nothing to confront Israel because it does not want to make Palestine a political issue in the U.S. and it does not want to bring down Naftali Bennett’s fragile government, says Tal Shalev of Walla News speaking to an Israel lobby organization.
“The one thing that is common among these six organizations that have just been declared to be terrorist is that they have all been active, especially Al-Haq, in documenting and presenting dossiers to the International Criminal Court in the Hague regarding Israel’s violations of human rights,” and particularly of Israel’s onslaught on Gaza in 2014, led by Gantz, that killed more than 2200 Palestinians, the Palestinian-American lawyer Jonathan Kuttab, who co-founded Al-Haq said yesterday.
The new Israeli government this week moved forward on plans to build 3000 more settlement units in the West Bank; and yesterday the State Department issued its strongest opposition to the plans since Joe Biden took office, calling the plans “unacceptable.” The State Department spokesperson said yesterday the U.S. “strongly” opposes the expansion of settlements.
On Sunday Israel approved plans for 1,300 new settlement units in the occupied West Bank, in the first move of its kind since US President Joe Biden took office. Later this week, the Israel Higher Planning Committee is expected to meet to push forward plans for an additional 2,862 units.
Israel is facing widespread backlash for its dangerous decision to label six Palestinian human rights groups as terrorist organizations. “Supporters of Israel often say to critics, ‘Stop singling out Israel. Stop picking on Israel. Treat Israel like any other country,'” Mehdi Hasan said on his MSNBC news program. “Well, okay then. Let’s condemn them for doing this then because when our other allies, like Turkey or Saudi Arabia or Egypt, crack down on human rights groups, we condemn them for it. We criticize them. So why give Israel a pass?”