Opposition in the United States to the Israeli occupation

Opposition in the United States to the Israeli occupation is organized by a number of organizations, many of them members of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights. These organizations include peace and anti-war, human rights and Arab- and Muslim-Americans groups.[1] Their tactics include education, protest, civil disobedience and lobbying.[2][3][4][5]

"The World Says No to Israeli Occupation" rally, June 10, 2007, at U.S. Capitol, sponsored by the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation (now the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights) and United for Peace and Justice.

History

Political activism against occupation first emerged in the wake of the Six-Day War when Israel conquered the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights from Jordan, Egypt, and Syria.[6]

Organizations

Arab-American organizations
  • The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), founded in by U.S. Senator James Abourezk in 1980, calls the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land the "foremost obstacle to peace."[7]
  • The American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) seeks an end to the occupation through negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, anchored in international law. It believes this to be in the national interest of Americans, Palestinians and Israelis. Its work is focused on "the effort to create this critical mass for ending the occupation."[8]
  • The Arab American Institute (AAI), founded in 1985 by James Zogby, lobbies for an end to Israeli settlements, protests what it sees as human rights violations in the West Bank and Gaza, and supports the two-state solution.[9]
  • The Palestine Center's purpose is to bring together the American and Palestinian communities to learn about the Palestinian people's quest for sovereignty, civil and political rights and an end to Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, the surrounding refugee camps.[10]
  • The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) notes that despite U.N. resolutions, Israel continues to expand its settlements. It calls for dialogue and diplomacy to end the conflict.
  • The Palestinian American Congress (PAC), founded in 1995, "adheres to the principles that the Palestinian people constitute an indivisible National Unit and that Palestine is its national homeland."[11] It asserts that according to international law Palestinian land cannot be annexed as long as "the occupied people are still resisting the occupation."[12]

Other organizations
  • The Council for the National Interest (CNI) opposes Israel's occupation of Palestinian lands since the Six Day war.[15]
  • The Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) looks for economic means to end the occupation of what it calls "Palestine/Israel." It suggests an economic boycott by all Christians of Israel, including divestment of stocks of companies that do business with Israel.[16] MCC activist Alain Weaver has advocated a One-state solution, writing "Might not a bi-national future in one state be one in which Palestinians and Israelis alike both sit securely under vine and fig tree?"[17]
  • The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) opposes settlements in the occupied territories.[18] In December, 2008, AFSC wrote an open letter to President Obama, urging American pressure to stop the war in Gaza and to open negotiations with Hamas.[19] As a Quaker organization that opposes all war, AFSC has been active in Israel and Palestine, supporting pacifism, conscientious objectors, and nonviolence.[20]
  • In 2004 the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), which had long opposed the occupation of Palestine, called for a "phased selective divestment in accordance with General Assembly policy on social investing."[21]

Critics

Michael Lewis, director of Policy Analysis for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee criticizes a number of anti-occupation groups, contending that their goals are "to drive a wedge between the U.S. government and Israel; to undermine public and government support for Israel in the United States, and (especially since the 1973 war) to bring about a halt in American governmental aid to Israel."[22]

In his book In the Trenches: Selected Speeches and Writings of an American Jewish Activist, David A. Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee says Israel must explain "how the occupation came about" and dismisses as "buzzwords" Palestinians attempts to gain sympathy as an occupied people.[23]

See also

References
  1. Member Organizations US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation (now the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights).
  2. 40 National Orgs. Tell Congress, "Freeze Military Aid to Israel Until Israel Freezes Settlements", by the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation in Monthly Review, June 16, 2009.
  3. Ida Wahlstrom, Rights Groups Condemn US Role in Gaza Conflict, Common Dreams, January 10, 2009.
  4. H. L. Krieger, US rally against Israeli 'occupation' attracts smaller numbers than expected, Jerusalem Post, June 11, 2007.
  5. Melissa Apter, 'Coming Out' for the Palestine Solidarity Movement, The Nation, June 4, 2007.
  6. George Friedman The Israel Lobby in U.S. Strategy, September 4, 2007.
  7. http://www.adc.org/index.php?id=251
  8. http://www.americantaskforce.org/policy_and_analysis/issue_paper/2007/10/15/1235593341_0
  9. "About AAI" from the AAI website
  10. About the Palestine Center Archived 2009-02-19 at the Wayback Machine, Palestine Center web site.
  11. About us from the PAC website/
  12. Palestinian American Congress 2004 Action Alert at Palestinian American Congress website.
  13. For example # http://www.wrmea.com/html/usaidtoisrael0001.htm - http://www.wrmea.com/archives/April_2009/0904041.html - http://www.wrmea.com/archives/July_2009/0907048.html - http://www.wrmea.com/jews_for_justice/1967war.htmlconsiders
  14. http://wrmea.org/component/content/article/245-2008-november/3845-congress-watch-a-conservative-estimate-of-total-direct-us-aid-to-israel-almost-114-billion.html
  15. http://www.cnionline.org/issues/israelpalestine/
  16. "Peacebuilding in Palestine/Israel: A Discussion Paper" at the MCC website
  17. Alain Epp Weaver, "Memory against Forgetting," Cornerstone, 44 (Spring 2007): 2-5
  18. http://www.afsc.org/israel-palestine/ht/d/ContentDetails/i/3689/pid/13382
  19. "Open Letter to President Bush and President-Elect Obama" by Mary Ellen McNish, AFSC General Secretary, December 31, 2008, at the AFSC website]
  20. "Profiles of Peace: Celebrating 40 Israeli and Palestinian peace builders" from the AFSC website
  21. http://www.pcusa.org/worldwide/israelpalestine/israelpalestineresolution.htm
  22. Israel's American Detractors - Back Again, by Michael Lewis, Middle East Quarterly, November 1997
  23. David A. Harris, In the Trenches: Selected Speeches and Writings of an American Jewish Activist, KTAV Publishing House, Inc., 2008, pp. 58, 282, 311.
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