August 13, 2020 | Press Release | Source
“New York City, NY (August 13, 2020) — Israel’s temporary suspension of formal annexation – at least for the moment – is not the news in Trump’s announcement. It is vital we stay focused on challenging U.S. support for Israel’s continuing system of apartheid, including ongoing de facto annexation of Palestinian land through land grabs, daily oppression of Palestinians, illegal settlement expansion, rampant rights violations and attacks on human rights defenders.
The current claim of suspending Israel’s attempt to annex Palestinian land, through Israel’s new trade agreement with the UAE, does nothing to halt its on-going creeping annexation or the apartheid regime it imposes on Palestinians. The fact that two countries which regularly violate human rights and which are already cooperating in undemocratic tech exchanges have announced a more public rapprochement is merely confirmation of the ongoing erasure of Palestinians; this agreement makes it seem like the ongoing brutality experienced by Palestinians is part of normal operations of a so-called democratic state.
Despite this or any trade agreement with any country, Israel’s illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank are continuing to grow – and they are still illegal; Palestinian children are still being dragged from their beds in midnight raids by soldiers and held in military prisons in violation of international law; Palestinian homes are still being demolished; Israeli military law is still applied to Palestinians and their human rights are denied daily in violation of international prohibitions of apartheid and beyond.
The U.S. brokered trade deal between Israel and the UAE is merely the latest example of governments trading away Palestinian rights – and yet, as we’ve seen time and again, Palestinian resistance and international solidarity with Palestinians continues to grow. Normalization with the UAE facilitated by Trump erases Palestinians and ignores their rights and demands for self-determination.
It is precisely because of Israel’s ongoing oppression of Palestinians that international pressure is needed – so we need to keep up the pressure on our own government to stop enabling Israeli violations – including stop enabling partnerships between Israel and Arab dictatorships that will be rewarded by greater U.S. support and directly through campaigns like the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement using non-violent pressure directly on Israel.”
Stefanie Fox, Executive Director of Jewish Voice for Peace: “A business deal between oppressive countries has nothing to do with justice. What matters is that Israel’s de facto annexation of Palestinian land and devastating apartheid system over Palestinians has been on-going for decades, with the unconditional backing of the United States. We won’t be fooled by attempts to normalize Israel’s human rights abuses while apartheid continues unabated. Regardless of Trump and Netanyahu’s latest distraction ploy, the Palestinian rights movement and international solidarity for Palestinian freedom grows stronger daily.”
Phyllis Bennis, JVP Board Member: “Netanyahu lies when he claims the Israel-UAE agreement is somehow about ‘peace for peace,’ as if the UAE was at war with Israel. In fact, the UAE has been at peace, indeed has been normalizing relations with Israel with U.S. support, for years – at the expense of Palestinian rights and those of the UAE’s own people. Israel’s de facto annexation of illegally-occupied Palestinian land continues, and while it does, no new Israel-Arab treaty has any chance of bringing peace. We need to remember Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s words: ‘Peace is not just the absence of war, but the presence of justice’.”
Stefanie Fox and Phyllis Bennis are available for interviews.
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Jewish Voice for Peace is a national, grassroots organization inspired by Jewish tradition to work for a just and lasting peace according to principles of human rights, equality, and international law for all the people of Israel and Palestine. JVP has over 500,000 online supporters, over 70 chapters, a youth wing, a Rabbinic Council, an Artist Council, an Academic Advisory Council, and an Advisory Board made up of leading U.S. intellectuals and artists.
“Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, have joined the overwhelming bipartisan support in Congress for the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain normalizing ties with the State of Israel.” Link
“UAE and Israel deal is neither a peace treaty nor will it end the Palestine conflict”
22 August 2020 | By DOV WAXMAN | Source
“Israel has achieved normalisation with an important Arab state without making any territorial concessions to the Palestinians.”
“The heralded recent agreement to normalize relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates may not be the grand achievement it was made out to be.
The White House-brokered deal, which was announced with much fanfare on Aug. 13, is undoubtedly a diplomatic win for U.S. President Donald Trump and for Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who declared its signing a “historic day.”
But the United Arab Emirates and Israel have never been at war, so the new agreement between them is not really a peace treaty, as some White House officials and press accounts suggested. It is an agreement to begin officially upgrading relations that have been quietly improving for some time, a process that will probably unfold slowly and tentatively.
Nor is it a deal that helps resolve the long-running conflict between Israel and the Palestinians – the subject of my academic research and recent book. For Palestinians, in fact, the Israeli-Emirati agreement is seen as a major setback, weakening their bargaining position with Israel.”
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June 13, 2020 | The Jerusalem Post |
“Under these conditions, annexation of Palestinian territories will cement into place an anti-democratic system of separate and unequal law and systemic discrimination against the Palestinian population.”
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