[Peace-discuss] LTE: Illinois bill backs illegal settlements

[David Green]

Very well stated. 


     On Monday, June 1, 2015 10:24 AM, Robert Naiman via Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:
   
 

 http://www.news-gazette.com/opinion/letters-editor/2015-05-31/illinois-bill-backs-illegal-settlements.html

Illinois bill backs illegal settlements
Sun, 05/31/2015 - 7:00am | The News-GazetteThe News-Gazette is delighted that the Illinois Legislature has voted to require state pension funds to divest from (foreign) companies that "boycott Israel" ("Boycott issue cuts both ways," May 22).But you missed a crucial detail. The Illinois legislation defines "boycotting Israel" to include boycotting any enterprise in "Israeli-controlled territory," i.e. any enterprise in an Israeli settlement in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The West Bank is not recognized as "Israel" by the international community, including the United States.European countries in particular regard Israeli settlements in the West Bank as illegal under international law. Human Rights Watch has the same view.Thus, the real import of the legislation is to try to legitimize Israeli settlements in the West Bank as equal to "Israel." The goal of the bill's proponents, and supporters of the settlements more generally, is to prevent diplomatic resolution of the conflict according to the international consensus: creation of a Palestinian state.

If no Palestinian state is created, and if the Palestinian residents of the West Bank are not granted Israeli citizenship, what remains is for the Palestinian residents of the West Bank to remain stateless — to live under a system of apartheid, subject to rule by a government for which they are not allowed to vote.
Ironically, while critics of "the global BDS movement" resent the comparison of Israel to apartheid South Africa, the goal of the Illinois legislation and the pro-settlement movement is to make reality conform to the analogy more explicitly.ROBERT NAIMANUrbana
===

Robert Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
(202) 448-2898 x1


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