Petition - I strongly urge you to end military aid to Israel

[ckaihatsu]

The next federal government budget is scheduled to include a record-breaking appropriation of $3.075 billion in military aid to Israel, part of a ten-year agreement to provide $30 billion of weapons to Israel.

From moral, financial, and legal perspectives, the United States cannot afford to continue providing military aid to Israel to commit human rights abuses against and oppress Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip, and to deny them their rights to freedom and self-determination.

I strongly urge you to end military aid to Israel as a sanction for its obstinate refusal to abide by UN resolutions, human rights standards, and international law in its apartheid policies toward the Palestinian people.

We cannot afford to be complicit any longer in providing Israel high-velocity tear gas canisters to injure and kill Palestinians civilians nonviolently protesting the theft of their land. We cannot afford to be complicit any longer in providing Israel armored bulldozers to demolish Palestinian homes and raze Palestinian agriculture to clear land for illegal Israeli settlements. We cannot afford to be complicit any longer in providing Israel the guns, ammunition, tanks, missiles, naval vessels, helicopters, and fighter jets used to impose an inhumane and illegal blockade on the 1.5 million Palestinian civilians of the Gaza Strip.

We cannot afford to be so munificent in providing Israel with the weapons of war it needs to destroy Palestinian infrastructure, especially while our schools, roads, and other basic infrastructure are crumbling. We cannot afford to pay for Israel to make Palestinians homeless especially while millions of our own citizens lack access to affordable housing. We cannot afford to provide Israel with the weapons of war it needs to injure and kill so many innocent Palestinian civilians especially while millions of our own citizens still lack access to quality health care. We cannot afford to employ Israeli soldiers to impose apartheid on Palestinians especially while millions of our own citizens cannot find a job.

Instead of providing Israel with $3.075 billion in military aid in FY2012, we could much more wisely spend this money to provide 373,376 low-income families with affordable housing vouchers; or retrain 495,640 unemployed workers for green jobs; or educate 909,204 at-risk youth through early reading programs; or supply basic health care services to 24,902,818 people lacking insurance. [1]

We cannot afford to continue to turn a blind eye to Israel’s blatant violations of U.S. laws that are supposed to prevent U.S. military aid from being used to commit human rights abuses. The Arms Export Control Act limits the use of U.S. weapons to “internal security” or “legitimate self-defense.” Israel’s illegal military occupation and apartheid policies toward Palestinians are neither. The Foreign Assistance Act states that no U.S. aid may be provided to any country “which engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.” During the past ten years, the Israeli human rights organization B’tselem has documented Israel’s killing of more than 3,000 Palestinians civilians. Is this not enough evidence to enforce the law?

During last December’s Human Rights Day, the State Department affirmed that “there is a single universal standard [of human rights] that applies to every country, including our own. We apply it to the Israelis, and we also view…Palestinians as being human beings under the Universal Declaration [of Human Rights] and entitled to those rights.”

It is long past due for the United States to make good on its words. It can and must do so by ending military aid to Israel.

[1] Calculations made from federal government data at: http://aidtoisrael.org/


http://www.endtheoccupation.org/arti...t=type&type=20

[9]

Out of curiosity, what is the purpose of petitions like this, other than obviously as a means for liberals to feel good about themselves without even having to leave the internet...? I mean, the occupation isn't going to end because of a petition, and isn't going to end because of anything that outraged liberals in the US do, nor is US military aid to Israel going to end for either of those reasons.
So I just don't really see the point; it just seems like it builds illusions in the idea that the US government gives a damn about what anyone thinks in the first place.

[Communist]

Petitions have long been a great way to get names, addresses, email addresses and sometimes even phone numbers of people who may hold similar views to an organized group. When actions are being planned for certain areas, etc., they might be contacted.

[MarxistMan]

beware of critisizing Isra-hell, there are many left-gatekeepers who are zionists, and who might label you as anti-semite. The USA left is doomed, with so many people who defend Israel and zionism.

I hate dogmatic orthodox leftists who come from the USSR soviet dogmatic school of socialism, dogmatic-marxists are an impediment toward the creation of a real democratic anti-Stalinist left in America

.

.

The next federal government budget is scheduled to include a record-breaking appropriation of $3.075 billion in military aid to Israel, part of a ten-year agreement to provide $30 billion of weapons to Israel.

From moral, financial, and legal perspectives, the United States cannot afford to continue providing military aid to Israel to commit human rights abuses against and oppress Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip, and to deny them their rights to freedom and self-determination.

I strongly urge you to end military aid to Israel as a sanction for its obstinate refusal to abide by UN resolutions, human rights standards, and international law in its apartheid policies toward the Palestinian people.

We cannot afford to be complicit any longer in providing Israel high-velocity tear gas canisters to injure and kill Palestinians civilians nonviolently protesting the theft of their land. We cannot afford to be complicit any longer in providing Israel armored bulldozers to demolish Palestinian homes and raze Palestinian agriculture to clear land for illegal Israeli settlements. We cannot afford to be complicit any longer in providing Israel the guns, ammunition, tanks, missiles, naval vessels, helicopters, and fighter jets used to impose an inhumane and illegal blockade on the 1.5 million Palestinian civilians of the Gaza Strip.

We cannot afford to be so munificent in providing Israel with the weapons of war it needs to destroy Palestinian infrastructure, especially while our schools, roads, and other basic infrastructure are crumbling. We cannot afford to pay for Israel to make Palestinians homeless especially while millions of our own citizens lack access to affordable housing. We cannot afford to provide Israel with the weapons of war it needs to injure and kill so many innocent Palestinian civilians especially while millions of our own citizens still lack access to quality health care. We cannot afford to employ Israeli soldiers to impose apartheid on Palestinians especially while millions of our own citizens cannot find a job.

Instead of providing Israel with $3.075 billion in military aid in FY2012, we could much more wisely spend this money to provide 373,376 low-income families with affordable housing vouchers; or retrain 495,640 unemployed workers for green jobs; or educate 909,204 at-risk youth through early reading programs; or supply basic health care services to 24,902,818 people lacking insurance. [1]

We cannot afford to continue to turn a blind eye to Israel’s blatant violations of U.S. laws that are supposed to prevent U.S. military aid from being used to commit human rights abuses. The Arms Export Control Act limits the use of U.S. weapons to “internal security” or “legitimate self-defense.” Israel’s illegal military occupation and apartheid policies toward Palestinians are neither. The Foreign Assistance Act states that no U.S. aid may be provided to any country “which engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.” During the past ten years, the Israeli human rights organization B’tselem has documented Israel’s killing of more than 3,000 Palestinians civilians. Is this not enough evidence to enforce the law?

During last December’s Human Rights Day, the State Department affirmed that “there is a single universal standard [of human rights] that applies to every country, including our own. We apply it to the Israelis, and we also view…Palestinians as being human beings under the Universal Declaration [of Human Rights] and entitled to those rights.”

It is long past due for the United States to make good on its words. It can and must do so by ending military aid to Israel.

[1] Calculations made from federal government data at: http://aidtoisrael.org/


http://www.endtheoccupation.org/arti...t=type&type=20

[ckaihatsu]

beware of critisizing Isra-hell, there are many left-gatekeepers who are zionists, and who might label you as anti-semite.

I'll take this in the best possible way, since you characterized Israel as "Isra-hell"....

I think it's a matter of making the distinction between the people who happened to be born onto a landmass currently controlled by an empire (U.S., Israel, etc.), and the empire itself. For example, plenty of people throughout the world could be flippantly labeled as "anti-American" due to their perfectly justifiable resentment towards the U.S. empire -- *but*, the term 'anti-American' is not quite precise because those so labeled are not really against the *people* of the United States -- "Americans". The resentment and hatred is more about what the global *capitalist* plutocracy is doing at the helm of the world, using the U.S. as the steering wheel.

Likewise the first step in anyone's political education should be to encourage the appreciation for a distinction between those who are explicitly *political* and those who are more life-centric. Political matters, at whatever level, take on a technical-like nature of their own -- these dynamics are distinctly different from the functioning of everyday life for anyone. Either someone decides to spend time looking at these generalized issues, or they don't. To the extent of time and effort (and material resources) they dedicate to such matters is the extent to which they are a 'political person'.

So.... This is all prelude to the making of my point, which is that being born Jewish (or whatever) is *not* synonymous with being a political person, and/or explicitly and publicly supporting Israel. To put it categorically there is a distinction between ethnicity and politics -- the first is *not* under one's control, while the latter *is*.

The USA left is doomed, with so many people who defend Israel and zionism.

Are you sure you're still a Marxist, with that (fatalistic) statement -- ? -- !

I hate dogmatic orthodox leftists who come from the USSR soviet dogmatic school of socialism, dogmatic-marxists are an impediment toward the creation of a real democratic anti-Stalinist left in America

.

.

You may want to reassess your political priorities here -- while I will not champion Stalinist revisionism I think far too much political attention is paid to that historical period, relative to current work. If the "real democratic [...] left" are currently hampered by any extant "Stalinists", it would be due to their *current* lingering nationalistic sentiments towards *existing* nation-states, rather than anything stemming from *historical* interpretations.

real democratic anti-Stalinist left in America

You have some nationalistic sentiments here yourself -- there's no good reason to specify a nation-based nexus when expressing a global-working-class politics.