Re: Jews Against the Occupation
http://www.jatonyc.org/
Fact: Over 34 new settlements were created since Sharon took office.
The Israeli government has established 34 new civilian Jewish settlement outposts, including eight over the last two months, in the West Bank and Gaza Strip since the February 2001 elections, according to an aerial survey conducted by Peace Now. The number of Jewish settlers is now more than 300,000.
To maintain and protect these settlements, Israel must maintain military occupation in West Bank and Gaza. The Palestinians are segregated in non-contiguous enclaves, surrounded by Israeli-controlled borders, with Israeli settlements and settlement roads cutting through, essentially violating Palestinian territorial integrity.
Fact: The occupation is illegal under international law.
Under UN Resolution 242, Israel is required by international law to withdraw from all the territories occupied in 1967, including East Jerusalem. The UN has stated time and time again, the only way to end the violence is to end the occupation.
Fact: The occupation is killing children and innocent civilians.
Israelis possess overwhelming military superiority over the Palestinians. The Palestinians have used violent means to resist the occupation, but that does not take away from the fact that Israeli soldiers are shooting individuals with missiles, using American made F-16s and Apache helicopters. Tanks roll into refugee camps, supposedly to root out terrorists. But so many of these so-called terrorists are small children.
According to B’Tselem, 897 of the Palestinians killed from September 29, 2000 though March 30, 2002 have been civilians, including 192 children. There were over 108 assassinations (a war crime according to the Hague Convention -1907).
Fact: The Israeli government demolishes homes, uproots crops, and confiscates land.
Since October 2000, 580 homes were demolished or blown up. 291 acres of land was confiscated. 34,606 olive & fruit trees were uprooted. In East Jerusalem, Palestinian homes are demolished and land confiscated in order to ensure Jews have a majority in the city (the “Silent Transfer”).
Fact: Palestinians suffer a severe water shortage due to the Occupation
The Israeli occupation government has been stealing annually, since 1967, up to 80% of the groundwater from the “Mountain Reservoir,” a group of groundwater aquifers located underneath the mountains of the Occupied West Bank of Palestine, including the Occupied Jerusalem. The Palestinian people are allowed no control of these extensive water resources.
Fact: Over 1,000 Israelis have refused military service due to the Occupation.
“We will no longer fight beyond the Green Line for the purpose of occupying, deporting, destroying, blockading, killing, starving and humiliating an entire people,” declares a petition signed by the reservists.
Fact: You fund the occupation.
Israel, whose population is 0.1% of the total world population, gets roughly one-third of all US foreign aid. Annually this amounts to more than $3 billion in US taxpayer dollars going to Israel, $2.04 billion of that is military aid.
Fact: Peace is possible.
It is a myth that Palestinians need to be subjugated to keep Jews safe. The occupation is only worsening the position of Jews in the Middle East. True safety only comes with justice and equality. History teaches us that when people come together around a common vision for peace, they can change even the most oppressive conditions.