Most UUs are looking on with horror at what is happening in Palestine/Israel right now. But we can do more than watch. We can help bring justice and peace to Palestine/Israel. To do so, we must look beyond the headlines about the death and destruction caused by Israeli bombing of Gaza and by Hamas rocket attacks on Israel. We must look beyond the current home demolitions in East Jerusalem and the Jewish/Arab mob violence in Israel itself.
We should understand that the root of all this human horror is the denial of the fundamental human rights of Palestinians by the state of Israel. This denial has gone on for decades and is well documented in recent reports by the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem (https://www.btselem.org/publications/fulltext/202101_this_is_apartheid ), and the international human rights organization Human Rights Watch (https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/04/27/abusive-israeli-policies-constitute-crimes-apartheid-persecution ). Both reports show how the Israeli government is guilty of the crimes of apartheid and persecution.
Israel could not continue with its systematic denial of Palestinian human rights without the diplomatic and military support of the United States. Those are US planes and US bombs destroying Gaza. Israel will not change until US support is made conditional on an end to the oppression at the hands of the Israeli government. Times are changing, and polls show that a majority of Democrats support making such aid conditional, and many members of Congress, including Senator Bernie Sanders, are now calling for it.
Indeed, one member of Congress, Representative Betty McCollum, has introduced a bill, H.R. 2590 (see https://mccollum.house.gov/media/press-releases/mccollum-introduces-historic-legislation-defending-human-rights-palestinian ), that would protect the human rights of Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation and prevent Israel’s use of US funds for the military detention of children, the unlawful seizure and destruction of Palestinian property, and the further annexation of Palestinian land in violation of international law. The bill is endorsed by Black Lives Matter, by immigrant rights groups, by peace groups, by faith groups, and even by J Street, the liberal Zionist group that supports a two-state solution.
Real peace and justice in Palestine/Israel would be served in a major way if we UUs could work for Palestinian human rights as we have for so many social justice issues in this country. We must urge Congress to end unconditional US aid to Israel. We can begin by telling our Representatives to get behind the McCollum bill.
Take Action Today:
You can take action by supporting HR 2590, described below. Let your Representative (https://www.house.gov/representa…/find-your-representative) and your Senators (https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm) know that your US tax dollars should not be used in the violation of human rights! Please support Representative McCollum and HR 2590.
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