Screenshot by Palestine Solidarity Campaign via Flickr
by Felicity Arbuthnot
Writer, Dandelion Salad
London, England
July 30, 2017
The Washington Post reports that:
“All 100 U.S. Senators signed a letter Thursday asking U.N. Secretary General António Guterres to address what the lawmakers call entrenched bias against Israel at the world body.”
The letter: “ … uses strong language to insist that the United Nations rectify what the Senators said is unequal treatment of Israel on human rights and other grounds.”
“Through words and actions, we urge you to ensure that Israel is treated neither better nor worse than any other U.N. member in good standing,” they stated.
The Senators appear to be on a parallel universe. Have they reflected, in context, on the UN’s fine founding words, avowing:
“to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war … to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person … to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom … to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours … to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples …”
Israel – ever presented as the eternal victim – has not just made a mockery of the words but also of the Balfour letter of 2nd November 1917 and trampled on both ever since. Balfour:
“His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine ….” (Emphasis added.)
So much for the “rights” of the Palestinians. Between November 1947 and November 1948 five hundred and thirty-one Palestinian towns and villages had been “ethnically cleansed.” By 1952 it was six hundred and fifteen.
This “Nakba” (“catastrophe”) seventy years after Israel’s final founding, is ongoing.
The land grabs are illegal and violate: U.N. Charter, Article 2(4) & 51 (1945); Declaration on Principles of International Law Concerning Friendly Relations…, Principle 1 (1970).
Settlements on occupied lands violate Geneva Conventions IV, Article 49(6) (1949). It is illegal to colonize or transfer non-indigenous people to occupied land.
Taking land by force and claiming sovereignty violates: U.N. Charter, Article 2(4) (1945); Declaration on Principles of International Law Concerning Friendly Relations…, Principle 1.
Forbidding civilian populations the right to return to their homes following the end of armed conflict is in direct violation of international law and UN resolutions. Geneva Convention IV, Articles 45, 46 & 49 (1949), UN resolutions 194 (III) (General Assembly; 1948) & 237 (Security Council; 1967).
Collective punishment violates Geneva Conventions IV, Article 33 (1949); Geneva Conventions (Protocol I), Article 75(2d) (1977).
The list of breaches of international law is near endless as are the attacks on a people with no army, air force or navy, plus the decimations of 1967, 2008-9 and 2014.
Israel’s violations of United Nations Security Council Resolutions, legally binding on Member-nations, include Resolutions – 54, 111, 233, 234, 236, 248, 250, 252, 256, 262, 267, 270, 280, 285, 298, 313, 316, 468, 476, a small sample.
The Senators would seem to have as little knowledge of the iniquities inflicted on the Middle East by foreign powers and cuckoos in the nest as their rookie President. It is not Israel being meted out “unequal treatment” it is the Palestinians, thieved of their land, history, justice and all normality.
Originally published at Global Research
from the archives:
Palestine Is Still The Issue by John Pilger
Norman Finkelstein: Six-Day War, 50-Year Occupation: What Really Happened in June 1967? Parts 1-3
Abby Martin and Eran Efrati on Institutionalized Israeli War Crimes and Oppression of Palestinians
Balfour Apology? by Clive Hambidge
Abby Martin: How Palestine Became Colonized, Part 1
Chris Hedges and Miko Peled: Apartheid Israel
Top Ten Myths about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict by Jeremy R. Hammond
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This is unbelievable. I just sent an e-mail to Senator Gillebrand about this disgusting action.
Thanks for doing that! Have you seen this post? https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2017/07/20/boycott-israel-go-to-jail/ There is a “take action” on the post.
I tried to send the letter to my member in the House and 2 Senators and after taking the time to fill out the entire form – including my phone number, which I do not like to do – it didn’t go through. It requested more information that wasn’t required at first and even after filling out every piece of info asked for, it didn’t go through. I think it might be because my iPad is somewhat old, although I don’t understand why that would be.
Thanks for your important work.
Thanks for trying.
I really don’t know why it wouldn’t go through for you. I never, ever give out my phone number online, I put in all zeros and that usually works. If you give them your phone number, they will call you using robo-calls during election times. The reason that they want your address is to know exactly which congressional district you live in. I’ve also noticed that some Senators want to know a “title” and some even a middle initial, so they can write back to you using Mr./Ms., etc.
Sometimes when filling out form letters I have to use a different browser. I don’t know anything about iPads so can’t help there.
Of course there is also another bizarre contradiction in the argument about the promised land being an historical entitlement gifted by divine precedent. If Israel is not a religious ie a theocratic state, how can this ‘original’ land be theirs to do with what they will, as an indisputable right, that can only have been bestowed by an initial holy dispensation? (That as we know. some orthodox refute on the basis that a messianic manifestation and revelatory event must sanction such an occurrence.)
Moreover, how can one reasonably be accused of antisemitism for criticising a secular state, a state that is actually Jewish not simply according to genetic heredity, but by direct association with a religious identity that is implicated if not directly derived, from a metaphysical covenant with the original biblical Donor (of that land) ~ who also happens to be the true inspiration and author-by-proxy of the Holy Qur’an that is sacred to the indigenous Semitic peoples who have been systematically evicted, murdered and persecuted by the immigrant claimants?
Very finely stated. Of course, it has always helped to have (the right) God on your side. Even if this perplexing God is a schizophrenic delusion, it doesn’t really matter; because true believers only have one side, their side ~ & the other side is just the same….only different.