United States must demand justice for Palestinians

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Un u EDMUND R. HANAUER hatever coalition government results W frem last weeks Isracti elections, Ariel Sharon will be Israel's prime minister, and Israeli-Palestinian peace will be Inpossidie unless Fresident George w. Bush takes forceful steps to end Israeli as well as Palestinian violence.

Bush's double standard on the cycle of Palestinian and Israeli violence and terror is cen aaronsculede man or neace wnle Yasser Arafat should be replaced by a "Palestinian leadership not compromised by terror." While Kush denounces alechinian terrorism his silence on Israeli state terrorism and violaHons oresass aralens.

Whereas three times asmany Palestinians as Israelis have died since the Palestinian uprishe Deraen sestenDer 200u, Bleno tac media and most of official Washington have focused almost entirely on Palestinian violence.

The Fourth Geneva Convention, which govausstaes occupation of Palestinian lands (the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem) is violated by numerous Israeli policies: exile; Torte ane Deanss coleeve Dansenen seizure of land and water resources; the settling ot hundreds or thousands of Jews on confiscated land; the destruction of thousands of homes and tens of thousands of olive and carus wees, demar or access to employment, medical care, education, water and food.

In December 2001, signatories signatories ofthe Genera Contenton reamre that e convention applies to Israel's occupation of PalesLa s, ewis selemens volate the Convention, and that Israel should cease United States, both signatories, boycotted the meeting. Israel, alone, denies the applicability onne convenon.

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other human rights croups bave determined that Israel, under both Labor and Likud parties, has been guilty of war crimes in is treament or Paesamans ane other Arans The Palestinians suffer daily under conditions barely mlacueu b zweereaus wao. unuke Europeans and Middle Easterners, have not experienced the terror of occupation in living memory. ror erampies Veteran correspondent Chris foreign Hedges visited Gaza in 2001 and reported in mee coner 20 Harbers Mene thats. raeli soldiers were killing Palestinian children "for sport." •On Jan.

21, Israel bulldozers destroved 62 Palestinian shops in the West Bank village of Natal ssa. e rasono oweers desor have permits to build, permits seldom given to Palestinians.

Kasplem ismae spadina human mants group, reports that Israel's denial of adequate aine ware suboues towns, in violation of international law, harms the health and livelihood of Palestinialos. •Israel severely punishes Palestinians who com volenee bur istac suldies art ser tlers guilty of violence seldom go to trial. In rare cases of conviction, sentences are token.

Recomition ot the brutalty or tne occupation has led 520 Israeli army reservists to refuse to serve in the occupied territories: thev see the occupation as a war against Palestinians waged to protect and expand illegal Jewase semenens Israeli holocaust survivors and their descendants are circulating a petition deploring Israel's destruction of Palestinian homes, olive trees and orchards, asserting: "Dominamon or anomer Deode aansts conadicts the lessons of the Holocaust, morally, humanely, politically:" Michael Ben Yair, the attorney general under Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, wrote recone taat aersorsne enosero pecone a colonialist society, "ignoring international weaues, erproonaue anus. uanserine ser tiers from Israel to the occupied territories. engaging in theft and finding justification for Palestinian violence against Israeli civilians, while both morally wrong and harmful to the Palestinian goal of freedom, is fully predietable: People living under a violent occupaBon wlar resoro olence Palestan violence will end when Israel ends its violent OccuPallun Given U.S. governmental support for Israel of $3 billion yearly, the United States is combetusaers comes ane volaton oonter national law and scores of U.N. resolutions.

The sooner the United States ties aid to Israel to sines resoemaao the sooner Israel will withdraw from all the occuDied Palestinian lands and allow Palestinians to have a viable independent state alongside Israel. By enabling Israel to flout the will of tne Internanona communi, busn ignores the warning by President John F.

Kennedy: "Those who make peaceful evolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable." Only by helping Palestinians achieve freedom and jusuce can the United states nelp bring security to Israeli Jews. Hanauer isan American Jewish human rights achenst and the arector o search for Justice and Equality in Palestine/Israel, a Bostonbased human rights/peacegroup.

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"United States must demand justice for Palestinians," The Plain Dealer, 4 February 2003. Covering Palestine archive, CP-2003-015. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-2003-015