15/06/2019
To the contrary, much of what the US does on an international stage (and some may argue national as well) is in blatant opposition to international law. Nowhere is this more obvious than its unconditional backing of Israeli colonial dreams against the Palestinians.
Israel, since its beginnings over 70 years ago, has often been on the wrong side of international law and UN resolutions. Its consistent brutality and abuses in the Palestinian Occupied Territories has been decried by people, countries, and human rights organisations across the globe. It has been referred to as a rogue state (along with the US) and has even been compared to apartheid South Africa (which also, coincidentally, received support from the US until it was too ‘inconvenient’ to do so).
In the latest back and forth between Israel and Gaza, the world’s largest open-air prison, no casualties have been reported but tensions are rising. Israel shut down the Gaza fishing zone (which has never been opened to it’s intended distance since it was put in place in 1993) in response to incendiary balloons and kites launched over the border. Not long after, rocket fire was exchanged between the two, with Israel escalating things further with jets striking parts of Gaza.
All of this comes after US Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, has said that “under certain circumstances” Israel would be able to “retain” part of the West Bank, where it has built illegal settlements. The US has supported these settlements for some time now, seeing that Jared Kushner had investments in Israeli development there. But this is much more than simply allowing the settlements – Friedman, it is feared, has suggested that annexation would “be legitimate”.
Activists for the two-state solution have called for a return to the pre-1967 borders, creating a Palestinian state alongside Israel, containing Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem as its capital. Under international law, Gaza and the West Bank are considered occupied territories (along with the Golan Heights, which is already annexed and recognised as such by the US), and Jerusalem has been given a unique status, corpus separatum.
Israel has, for years now, hypocritically condemned Palestinians as ‘terrorists’, saying that Hamas and others have been calling for the abolition of the “Jewish State” (a labelling that has the same merit as, if it were a single Palestinian state, calling it an “Arab” or “Islamic” State – i.e. none, Israel would have a conniption). In reality, Israel has consistently denied the Palestinians their right to self-determination, leaving them entirely dependent on Israel for basic survival.
Israel, in truth, has no intention of allowing Palestine to exist, nor even allow the Palestinians to become a part of a single Israeli State – then it would no longer be a Jewish State due to the high Arab population. Can’t allow that kind of racial disparity, it would be anti-Semitic. The resolution to the conflict is as simple as giving human beings their dignity and rights, but there is too much ideological and political interest involved for anyone to consider that.
The US’ foreign policy has always had the single goal of furthering their corporate interests, regardless of the humanitarian, environmental, or legal consequences. They act above the law, in defiance of the UN and other international bodies, like the ICC. Just like how they did not have the right to declare who they thought was the true leader of Venezuela, they also do not have the right to greenlight the annexation of illegal settlements in the West Bank.
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