Senators Feinstein and Sanders initiate letter urging Netanyahu not to demolish illegally built Palestinian Arab villages.
Ten Democratic senators, among them four Jews, on Wednesday wrote Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu urging him not to demolish Palestinian Arab villages despite the fact that they are illegal and built without authorization.
“We have long championed a two-state solution as a just resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” said the letter, initiated by Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and which was quoted by JTA.
“Yet, your government’s efforts to forcibly evict entire Palestinian communities and expand settlements throughout the West Bank not only directly imperil a two-state solution, but we believe also endanger Israel’s future as a Jewish democracy,” the letter adds.
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman recently said Israel plans to demolish the village of Susiya, near Hevron, and Khan al-Ahmar, a Bedouin village near the Maaleh Adumim.
The other Jewish senators to sign the letter are Al Franken of Minnesota and Brian Schatz of Hawaii. Sens. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Tom Carper of Delaware, Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Jeff Merkley of Oregon also signed.
Last week, the European Union (EU) also condemned Israel for the demolition of illegal Arab buildings and demanding Israel refrain from further demolitions.
In a statement released by the local Office of the European Union Representative, the EU slammed Israel over the planned eviction of Bedouin squatters who established illegal settlements in the northern Jordan Valley in eastern Israel over the past decade.
Some of the illegal construction in Judea and Samaria has been directly supported by the EU. According to a report by Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) in February 2016, the EU had built over 1,000 illegal structures in Judea and Samaria. Of those 1,000 buildings, 400 were built from 2012 to 2014, while 600 more were built in 2015 alone.
Over the last few years, Israel has several times demolished structures built illegally for Arabs by European NGOs with funding from the European Union.
The countries involved in the illegal construction have consistently condemned Israel for the demolitions, even as it has been made clear to them that the demolition orders were issued because the structures were built without permission.
@ ArnoldHarris:
This was a popular button everybody in the anti-nuke movement wore in the late ’70s when that was the main thing going on in the radical left, while listening to Credence Clearwater, Pete Seeger, and Charlie Somebody. Hey, “Communism is just Twentieth Century Americanism” (Earl Browder) right? Ha Ha.
https://d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/h/332/331/879331332.0.l.jpg
“I’m finally proud to be an American” – Michelle Obama on her husband’s inaugration.
@ ArnoldHarris:
I’m afraid that one has always missed the mark because, in fact, the American Left would do just that, given the opportunity. I, myself, back in the 70’s, when I was a radical leftist, worked a bit with the American Indian Movement. You have to know where your audience is coming from to avoid the look of utter puzzlement that I gave an Israeli who said that to me in the mid ’80s.
If the US Congressional Democrats such as Sanders feel so downright bad about how Israel treats it mainly Arab enemies, let them practice what they preach regarding the outright theft of most of the lands of the American Indian tribes whose rights were overridden by the mainly English-speaking immigrants who traveled across the Atlantic Ocean to settle this country as early as the 17th century. Let’s see how quickly all the palefaces can be made to give their properties back to the rightful owners who had first settled in North America beginning with the end of the most recent ice age some 14 thousand years ago.
Otherwise, tell them to shut their fucking mouths about how the eternal Jewish nation is reclaiming their own homeland. And yes, Ted, that all goes for Canada as well as the United States.
Arnold Harris, Outspeaker
Lawless Democrats like Obama and swamp Senators like Sanders and his type have done so much damage to their own country and they have demonstrated clearly that they are pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel. They are depraved and twisted individuals and have a track record of lying, cheating, and doing the wrong thing so please ignore their insane suggestions and demands. They have no concept of good and evil, right and wrong.
I forgot to mention that that raised finger, Sanders is using, should be broken down to size.
OK. One at a time: When the Israeli government forcibly evicts Jewish communities built legally, but tripped up by some NGO with money from The US Dems and the EU, that’s fine.
It is much more damaging to any democracy, Jewish, Israeli or other, to knowingly allow illegal activities to continue and even protect them.
There is already a TSS. It’s time those snot-nosed Dems woke up to the fact.
It’s also time that any illegal EU activities lead to their forced eviction from anywhere in Israel. When the Israeli government lets these activities continue, they are complicit.
Finally, no-one in the Israeli government can claim that these illegal activities can be undertaken without anybody noticing. They need to be stopped as soon as enough evidence has been collected.
Fuck the Democrat US senators. The government of the State of Israel determines the legalities of who can build housing developments and where they can be built.
Show that Israel is an independent country by acting accordingly.
Arnold Harris, Outspeaker
The hypocricy is mindboggling. Anything that sniffs of “illegal” Jewish building in Judea and Shomron must be destroyed immediately, but blatently illegal arab building….carte blanche. Oh to have a government with the baeztim to act as a sovereign entity.
One can dream, right?
Dumb, self-hating jews. Oy.