Recently, Israel attacked a refugee camp in Jenin, a city in the occupied territory of the West Bank of Palestine. The United Nations claims Israel used excessive force in the attack, even using helicopters to deploy weapons. Hundreds of Palestinian civilians were wounded and thousands evacuated their homes and fled to safety. Israel even attacked hospitals and schools and prevented the wounded from getting medical help.
It has been said that the U.S. could put an end to this violence in one day. Is that possible? Yes, I believe it is true.
First, the U.S. could withhold foreign aid until Israel meets with the Palestinians to sign a just and lasting peace agreement. The U.S. gives Israel more foreign aid than any other country (three times as much as the second country on the foreign aid list, which is Egypt), and Israel doesn’t even need the aid. Israel is a high tech country with abounding middle and upper classes.
Secondly, we could stop giving Israel preferential treatment at the U.N. Every time (and I mean every time) a resolution goes to the Security Council to condemn Israel for building settlements on Palestinian land, the U.S. uses its veto power to stop the resolution from passing.
It is written in international law that it is illegal for an occupying power (Israel) to build anything permanent on land it occupies (Palestine). Yet, so far in 2023, Israel has built more Israeli settlements on Palestinian land than in any other year, and the year is only half over.
The new Israeli right-wing government has as its objective to speed up the movement of moving Jews onto the land that is designated as the Palestinian homeland. At the end of WWII, to prevent a recurrence of what Adolf Hitler did (moving Germans into conquered countries), the U.N. and the Geneva Convention both stated that it is against international law for a conquering country to move its population and to build structures on the land that they conquered.
This is a war crime. Israel is guilty of both of these war crimes. And on top of that, the U.S. blocks the International Court of Justice from hearing this case.
Yes, the U.S. has within it the power to put an end to the violence Israel is committing in one day if it chose to do so. Yet, President Joe Biden does nothing.
Barbara Taylor, Salt Lake City
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