What Bernie Sanders (A Jew) Said About Israel To The Treasonous Daily News Is True & Reflects A Bigger Cultural Issue... Our Indifference To Mass Murdering Innocent People In Other Countries (Particularly Colored Ones)

April 17th 2016

Background (old news):

This is part 4 of my expose of the smear of Bernie Sanders by the treasonous Daily News of New York. Past parts are here;

The New York Daily News... ARE TRAITORS!

Daily News Decietful Interview With Hillary Clinton - Even Obama Said Hillary Was Incompetent To Be President (But Not In So Many Words)
This Daily News Trump Cover Exposes The Blindness We Have To Our Own Cultural Faults OR How The Political Establishment Embraces Genocide Of Colored People As Long As You Are Polite About It (Can't Tell Which *Shrug*)
The Daily News Has Committed Treason Against New York & America By Covering Up Essential Information From It's Readers!

ONU alerta que mundo entrou na era do…
DRK sendet dringend benÃ¶tigte Hilfsg…
â€œInvestigate your mother in law dee…
Hundreds of Palestinians flee Al-Shif…

The Issue: As Clinton Backs Closer U.S.-Israel Ties, Sanders Criticizes Settlements & 2014 Assault on Gaza

As far as I am concerned, I think this is Hillary Clinton revealing her true colors as a mass murderer in the footsteps of George Bush who Obama himself pointed out she was like before he entered his Stockholm Syndrome state that he is currently in;

WP: 7. Obama compares Hillary to George W. Bush (go to 4:50)

How can I say this? Look at what has happened so far under Obama and YET she takes this completely open stance with a mass murdering regime...

Israel Highlighted

The Case For Ending Foreign Aid To Israel (One Of The Richest Counties In The World)
Jon Stewart Eviscerates Netanyahu For Pulling A Mitt Romney By Revealing His Core Beliefs
Jon Stewart Catches Netanyahu for Repeating What He Said About Iran From 1996 While Others Reminds Us He Helped Dick Cheney Mislead Us Into A War With Iraq
US claims Jewish settlements are an obstacle to peace, but continues to give Israel generous foreign aid
Why Prime Minister Of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, Can't Be Trusted
Daily Show: Intelligence suggests that Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu misled the U.N. about Iran's nuclear program.
Benjamin Netanyahu's Definition of "Defense" Illustrated
Jimmy Carter & The Two State Solution (Israel & Palestine)
Netanyahu Is Purposely Choosing A Path To Increase The Political Divide IN The United States
A Look At Israel (Is Netanyahu GOP?)

What's happening in Israel against colored people is markedly similar to what happened here with the Native Americans (also, coincidentally, colored people), i.e. we killed them and took thier land after declaring it empty;

I covered this in detail in this post:

Ponderings On The Psychological Ramifications Of Genocide (Native American Example)

I have noticed this cultural blindness to genocide of colored people, especially if the economy is running well... or perceived to be running well along narrow definitions of growth and economic stability & talked about it in detail and this post (one could even say I mocked it to try & make people feel concerned about this issue, cause it IS an issue);

OMG! America Really Is A Christian Nation! A Look At America & It's Actions Through A Biblical Lens

This Daily News Trump Cover Exposes The Blindness We Have To Our Own Cultural Faults OR How The Political Establishment Embraces Genocide Of Colored People As Long As You Are Polite About It (Can't Tell Which *Shrug*)

Bernie Sanders being a Jew and telling the truth about the Israeli genocidal approach to it's neighbors because of a decades old war caused by the fake borders created by the British on their exit of the region is too good of an opportunity to pass up to hopefully get some "non-racist white liberals" and "self centered blacks" to see that there really are people being murdered by Israel ... AND Political Establishment & Media are covering it up. This post introduces to the behind the scenes activities of one of our Political Establishment's allies.

I thought, to be nice to my new friends, I would use a Daily News editorial to illustrate this cultural hypocrisy towards the blacks and the browns, not just from us, but when an ally does it, especially if they are the white Jewish immigrants from Europe who were given a land full of people as "empty" and created a white Israel for the first time in history!

Some background about the Daily News's recent treasonous coverup;

The New York Daily News... ARE TRAITORS!

Daily News Decietful Interview With Hillary Clinton - Even Obama Said Hillary Was Incompetent To Be President (But Not In So Many Words)
This Daily News Trump Cover Exposes The Blindness We Have To Our Own Cultural Faults OR How The Political Establishment Embraces Genocide Of Colored People As Long As You Are Polite About It (Can't Tell Which *Shrug*)
The Daily News Has Committed Treason Against New York & America By Covering Up Essential Information From It's Readers!

OK. Lets begin;

From a Daily News editorial on Sanders (A Jew) & his views on Israel;

Sanders would also bring to the White House a destructive conviction that Israel is deeply guilty of oppressing the Palestinians — including through excessive, unjustified violence.

This "Destructive conviction" is shared by Israeli soldiers as well;

Post: Israeli Soldiers Talk About The Genocidal Policies (Indiscriminate Killing) Of Their Government & Military

Still more, although he deplores the Palestinians’ use of terror to achieve their aims, Sanders virtually writes out of history Israel’s attempts to reach peace, as well as ingrained Palestinian rejectionism. He signals a presidency that would be wildly out of moral and pragmatic balance.

Seriously?

Article: Ignore the smears: Bernie Sanders is right about Israel’s heinous atrocities in Gaza — he just got the numbers wrong Israeli soldiers admitted they shot Palestinians out of boredom, but Bernie is slammed for trying to tell the truth

Any deal between Israel and the Palestinians will have to set the boundaries of two states by dividing land in disputed territory, some of it heavily populated by Palestinians and some by Israelis. But drawing maps only begins to get at deeper issues.

To name one, Israel needs a negotiating partner that can reliably guarantee security, halt terror attacks and recognize the Jewish state’s right to exist. To name another, the Palestinians insist on a right of return to land they judge stolen and occupied.

This is a weird stance to take since everyone around the world (all colored people, even Asian ones) that what the Israeli's are doing to the Palestinians is bad;

(more articles of Israel's massacres below)

But now that I realize that the owner is a Rich Jew I understand his willingness to kill colored people. Why is it only the poor Jews that are not Genocidal maniacs? What about Israel? Can you imagine what people in other part of the world think when they see America colluding with mass murders and genocidal maniacs AS AGREED UPON IN INTERNATIONAL LAW?

Despite those complexities, President Obama charted a futile course by insisting that Israel stop housing construction that the Palestinians and the U.S. see as illegal settlements in the West Bank. Obama’s position gave the Palestinians cover to refuse conversations until the Israelis met his fiat.

Sounds like he is agreeing with Bill Clinton's assessment that I covered here;

Of Course Bill Clinton Meant Obama When He Said The 'Awful Legacy Of The Last 8 Years'. Hillary Clinton Is LYING For Her Husband Bill.

Now, with the following sentence, Sanders has topped Obama by empowering the Palestinians to demand that Israel agree to uproot from their homes potentially thousands of its citizens as a condition for negotiations:

“Peace will mean ending what amounts to the occupation of Palestinian territory, establishing mutually agreed upon borders, and pulling back settlements in the West Bank, just as Israel did in Gaza.”

Pressed to explain his intentions, Sanders, who is Jewish, expressed total commitment to Israel’s welfare, pointed out that he had once lived there and has family there, and added that “long-term, we cannot ignore the reality that you have large numbers of Palestinians who are suffering now, poverty rate off the charts, unemployment off the charts, Gaza remaining a destroyed area.”

As for specifics on removing housing developments, Sanders said, “If I had some paper in front of me, I would give you a better answer. But I think if the expansion was illegal, moving into territory that was not their territory, I think withdrawal from those territories is appropriate.”

True. The Settlements are illegal according to International law;

Sanders has also criticized Israel for “disproportionate responses to being attacked” by indiscriminate rocket and mortar fire from Hamas. The country’s military has twice used force in Gaza to stop assaults launched by Hamas from civilian areas, including hospitals and schools.

Both conflicts produced accusations that Israel had inflicted an unacceptable death toll on Palestinians — despite having gone many extra miles to spare civilians whom Hamas had deliberately put in harm’s way.

When speaking of warfare that took place in 2014, Sanders in Salt Lake City condemned Hamas, which had assaulted Israel with 4,500 rockets and mortar shells. Regardless, he found Israel guilty of “the bombing of hospitals, schools and refugee camps” as if its military had done so with malicious abandon.

Salon: Brutal, ugly & illegal: 9 things you need to know about the Israeli occupation of Palestine The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement is gaining new ground by the day.

Questioned by The News about his belief that Israel had been disproportionately hard on the Palestinians, Sanders explained:

“I think most international observers would say that the attacks against Gaza were indiscriminate and that a lot of innocent people were killed who should not have been killed.”

Stunningly, Sanders said he believed that Israel had been responsible for 10,000 deaths — a number almost five times the United Nations count of roughly 2,000 killed.

His use of the figure 10,000 was all the more remarkable and irresponsible coming from a presidential candidate who had previously put the death toll at 1,500.

Article: Ignore the smears: Bernie Sanders is right about Israel’s heinous atrocities in Gaza — he just got the numbers wrong Israeli soldiers admitted they shot Palestinians out of boredom, but Bernie is slammed for trying to tell the truth

While on Hillary's side we see A COMPLETE INDIFFERENCE TO MASS MURDER/GENOCIDE polices being carried out by the Israeli military (close allies to the political establishment since before 9/11);

From Hillary's transcript with the Daily News;

Daily News: A couple quick questions, and I'm going to telescope these things unfortunately. Israel. Settlements. What will your approach be? You rather famously gave a lecture to Prime Minister Netanyahu over the phone. It's supposed to have been 43 minutes of you talking ,and two of him, about settlements.

Clinton: I think that's probably an exaggeration.

Daily News: That's what's been reported, but in any case, what will your approach be?

Clinton: Look, I think administrations both Democrat and Republican have all adopted the same position: that settlement expansion is not helpful in the context of the continuing American interest in helping to bring the parties together to try to achieve a two-state solution to the conflict. So I am in line with prior Republicans and Democrats. But I also have a long history and a personal commitment to Israel's security and to its future that I have been outspoken about, that I have been stalwart and strong in every way.

When I was secretary of state, the effort to try to work to support a peace process was one that I took seriously. And I have very frank and open conversations with my Israeli counterparts. I think that's what you're supposed to do with people who you respect and who you've known for many years as I have known Prime Minister Netanyahu and before him, Prime Minister Olmert, and Prime Minister Barak, and Prime Minister Rabin and many of the other major players. I am a friend, and I would not be much of a friend if I did not share my opinions, which I have done, and believe me it has been reciprocated.

But I think any disputes or disagreements should be handled in a respectfully and preferably private way, so we don't give any aid and comfort to Israel's adversaries or drive any wedges between us.

So my position which I outlined at length, in my AIPAC speech, is that I will continue to ensure that Israel has a qualitative military edge; that I will continue, as I did as a senator, as I did as secretary of state to do anything and everything for their security; that I will continue to speak out against the BDS movement, which I think is one-sided, discriminatory and unfair; that I will be a President who tries to always support Israel in the United Nations or any other international tribunal, as I have in the past.

So settlements is a piece of this, and it isn't helpful, but that is a piece of a much larger set of policies that I'm committed to.

All her points are easily countered in this collection of links;

Israel Highlighted

The Case For Ending Foreign Aid To Israel (One Of The Richest Counties In The World)
Jon Stewart Eviscerates Netanyahu For Pulling A Mitt Romney By Revealing His Core Beliefs
Jon Stewart Catches Netanyahu for Repeating What He Said About Iran From 1996 While Others Reminds Us He Helped Dick Cheney Mislead Us Into A War With Iraq
US claims Jewish settlements are an obstacle to peace, but continues to give Israel generous foreign aid
Why Prime Minister Of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, Can't Be Trusted
Daily Show: Intelligence suggests that Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu misled the U.N. about Iran's nuclear program.
Benjamin Netanyahu's Definition of "Defense" Illustrated
Jimmy Carter & The Two State Solution (Israel & Palestine)
Netanyahu Is Purposely Choosing A Path To Increase The Political Divide IN The United States
A Look At Israel (Is Netanyahu GOP?)

Related articles:

Article: Ignore the smears: Bernie Sanders is right about Israel’s heinous atrocities in Gaza — he just got the numbers wrong Israeli soldiers admitted they shot Palestinians out of boredom, but Bernie is slammed for trying to tell the truth

The harsh questioning and the media’s subsequent antagonistic response to Sanders’ measured and levelheaded remarks is just the latest example of how thorough and extreme the bias is against Bernie and his insurgent grassroots campaign — and against anyone who dares to acknowledge Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians.

Sanders, who has broken with Democratic Party dogma and promised to pursue a “level playing field” on Israel-Palestine, lived up to his promise in the interview.

Unlike his competitor Hillary Clinton, who has effusively lionized Israel and pledged to meet with hard-line right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in her first month in office, Sanders acknowledged the suffering Palestinians endure under illegal Israeli occupation, and dared to mention what almost no American politicians ever do — namely, that Israel has engaged in crimes of its own.

“We cannot ignore the reality that you have large numbers of Palestinians who are suffering now, poverty rate off the charts, unemployment off the charts, Gaza remaining a destroyed area,” Sanders said in the interview.

Israel “cannot just simply expand when it wants to expand with new settlements,” Sanders stressed. “So I think the United States has got to help work with the Palestinian people as well. I think that is the path toward peace.”

The Daily News was combative and disingenuous in its questioning. The editorial board implied that Israel’s illegal settlements in occupied Palestinian territory may not actually be illegal and referred to them as “so-called settlements.”

In reality, the U.N. and the entire international community, including the U.S., have insisted that Israel’s military occupation of the Palestinian territories is illegal since it began in 1967.

For almost 50 years, the U.N. and the entire international community have also firmly maintained that Israel’s continued expansion of settlements in this occupied territory is a flagrant violation of international law, specifically the Fourth Geneva Convention, which the International Committee of the Red Cross explicitly states bars settlement and confiscation of occupied territory.As the Washington Post reported, Israeli “soldiers described reducing Gaza neighborhoods to sand, firing artillery at random houses to avenge fallen comrades, shooting at innocent civilians because they were bored.”

Members of the Israel Defense Forces, or IDF, recall that they were ordered to shoot “anyone you spot that you can be positive is not the IDF” — to attack “any person you see,” and to “shoot to kill.”

Here Sanders was absolutely right. When it came to the specifics, however, Sanders stumbled a bit.

When trying to recall the number of Palestinian civilians who were killed by Israel in the 51-day war, Sanders said, “Anybody help me out here, because I don’t remember the figures, but my recollection is over 10,000 innocent people were killed in Gaza. Does that sound right?”

The Daily News did not even know the answer. “I think it’s probably high, but we can look at that,” the editorial board said.

“I think it’s over 10,000,” Sanders continued. “My understanding is that a whole lot of apartment houses were leveled. Hospitals, I think, were bombed.”

He added, “So yeah, I do believe and I don’t think I’m alone in believing that Israel’s force was more indiscriminate than it should have been.”

The media and political establishments exploded in response to this brief moment in the almost 10,000-word interview.

Sanders did misspeak. Israel actually killed more than 2,250 Palestinians in the 51-day summer 2014 war, known as Operation Protective Edge. According to the U.N., two-thirds of those killed were civilians — almost 1,500 people, including more than 550 children.

Another more than 11,200 Palestinians were injured in the conflict, including more than 3,400 children, the U.N. calculated. Roughly one-third of these children were permanently disabled.

While Sanders misstated the number of Palestinians killed, however, this mistake is not as surprising as it may seem, for the United Nations frequently uses the term “casualties” in its reports to refer to both injuries and deaths in conflicts, not just deaths.

There were approximately 13,500 Palestinian casualties in the war then, according to the U.N. definition.

This did not stop journalists and politicians from relentlessly barraging Sanders for the misstep, nonetheless.

Israel’s former ambassador to the U.S. was most extreme in his response. Michael Oren, now a member of Israel’s parliament the Knesset, accused Sanders of “blood libel” for the exaggerated figure.

It bears stressing that Sanders is the only Jewish presidential candidate from a major party, and, were he to be elected, would be the first Jewish president in U.S. history. Yet a prominent Israeli politician slung an ancient anti-Semitic accusation at the most popular Jewish American politician for mistakenly overstating the number of people his government killed.

“First of all, he should get his facts right. Secondly, he owes Israel an apology,” Oren insisted of Sanders.

“He accused us of a blood libel. He accused us of bombing hospitals. He accused us of killing 10,000 Palestinian civilians. Don’t you think that merits an apology?”

Oren implied that it is false that Israel bombed hospitals. In reality, this is an objective fact.

At least 17 hospitals, 56 primary healthcare facilities and 45 ambulances weredamaged or destroyed in the war, and 16 healthcare workers were killed, with an additional 83 injured. The total cost of the conflict to Gaza’s healthcare system was estimated at $50 million.

The U.S. media was overwhelmingly biased in favor of Israel. One of the most egregious moments was when NBC suspiciously removed award-winning journalist Ayman Mohyeldin from Gaza after he reported on Israel’s killing of four Palestinian children on a beach. And yet even it could not ignore the Israeli military’s attacks on hospitals.

NBC itself reported on July 21, 2014, “Israeli forces fired a tank shell at a hospital in Gaza on Monday, killing at least four people and injuring 40 others.”

“It was the third hospital Israel’s military has struck since launching a ground offensive in Gaza last week,” NBC noted.

Oren’s statement is also particularly ironic considering that, during the war, then-Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer insisted Israel had “the right” to bomb Gazan hospitals if Hamas militants were launching rockets from them — an accusation Israel frequently lobbied at Palestinians without much evidence.

Civilian neighborhoods were also relentlessly targeted. More than 12,600 housing units in Gaza were totally destroyed in the Israeli shelling. Another almost 150,000 housing units were damaged, with nearly 6,500 severely damaged. This left roughly 500,000 Palestinians displaced, and made 100,000 Gazans homeless.

Human Rights Watch furthermore detailed how Israel deliberately targeted schools that were housing displaced Palestinians, causing “numerous civilian casualties in violation of the laws of war.” The leading human rights organization called Israel’s attacks “unlawfully indiscriminate” and said they may have been war crimes.

Even the U.S. government, which wholeheartedly backed the Israeli military — to which it gives more than $3.1 billion tax dollars of annual aid — eventually had to say it was “appalled” by Israel’s “disgraceful” bombing of U.N. schools sheltering thousands of displaced Palestinians.

During the war, the U.S. media and government fearmongered endlessly of Hamas and its rockets, but, as MIT researcher and former U.S. government official Subrata Ghoshroy indicated in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, only 3 percent of Hamas rockets actually reached populated areas, and even then they caused little damage.

The fatality figures on the Israeli side show just how stark this difference was. While 66 Israeli soldiers were killed in the war, only six civilians were killed by Palestinian militants. Another 469 soldiers were wounded, along with just 87 civilians.

That is to say, over 24,400 percent more Palestinian civilians were killed in the war, using U.N. figures.

Approximately 66 percent of Palestinians killed by Israelis were civilians, whereas just 8 percent of Israelis killed by Palestinians were civilians.

Sanders may have gotten the precise figure wrong, but the sentiment of his comments was absolutely true, even if they were not entirely accurate.

Numerous human rights organizations accused Israel of committing horrific war crimes in Gaza.

In its report “Black Friday,” Amnesty International documented how Israel carried out war crimes and “possible crimes against humanity” in its attack on Rafah, Gaza, taking revenge out on Palestinian civilians after an Israeli soldier was captured.

In four days of intense bombardment, which Amnesty described as “carnage,” Israel killed at least 135 civilians, and perhaps over 200, including at least 75 children. That is to say, 56 percent of victims in the attack were children.

This was just four days of the 51-day war, and this is only one report from the dozens that were authored by numerous human rights organizations.

An independent medical fact-finding mission in Gaza detailed how the Israeli military deliberate killed Palestinian civilians. The 237-page report, authored by Physicians for Human Rights-Israel in conjunction with several other prominent human rights and medical organizations, found that the Israeli military used human shields, shot civilians dead at close range, left mortally wounded children on the ground to die, killed injured survivors and those attempting to rescue them, targeted civilian escape routes, attacked medical workers and more.

No American media outlets reported any of these facts in response to Sanders’ comments, leaving them largely contextless. Instead, the press, which has long been incredibly dismissive of Sanders’ enormously popular campaign (when it is notignoring him, that is), went for the jugular, ruthlessly attacking him.

Salon: Brutal, ugly & illegal: 9 things you need to know about the Israeli occupation of Palestine The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement is gaining new ground by the day. Here's why

Bernie Sanders alone had the courage to buck the tide and actually insert a modicum of truth, ethics, and reality, though as usual the mainstream media did not mention it. As The Intercept reported:

In a speech from Salt Lake City, which had been offered as a telecast to AIPAC — an offer that was denied — the Vermont senator reiterated his support for Israel’s security. He also insisted that “peace also means security for every Palestinian. It means achieving self-determination, civil rights, and economic well-being for the Palestinian people.”
Sanders called it “absurd” for Israel to pursue more settlements in response to violence. “Peace will also mean ending the economic blockade of Gaza,” he said. “And it will mean a sustainable and equitable distribution of precious water resources so that Israel and Palestine can both thrive as neighbors.”

Also in stark contrast to the non-debate on this essential element of U.S. foreign policy is the recent news that Senator Patrick Leahy and 10 House members have written a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry asking him to investigate claims that Israeli and Egyptian security forces have performed “gross human rights violations.” As Politico explains, “Leahy’s signature is particularly noteworthy because his name is on a law that conditions U.S. military aid to countries on whether their security forces are committing abuses.”

Despite the fact that Israel’s illegal Occupation and its persistent violations of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory have gained wider and wider condemnation both here and internationally, most Americans still know very little about the exact nature of the Occupation, its deep historical roots, and its deadly impact on the lives of common Palestinians. This is not surprising, given the virtual media blackout of the term. As the Foundation for Middle East Peace points out, at the AIPAC conference none of the participants dared utter the word, “Occupation,” which has clear and legitimate legal meaning. The Foundation asks, why?

“This is hardly a radical word. It’s one whose applicability has been affirmed by theHigh Court of Justice in Israel, and has been used by Prime Ministers such as Ehud Barak and even Ariel Sharon. It also has the merit of describing the situation on the ground in the West Bank, and legally still applies to Gaza as well. The fact that Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza are governed under military law, rather than civil law, is evidence that Israel itself recognizes the legal fact of occupation, despite what its right wing politicians might claim.”

It is precisely because the Occupation is illegal by international law that Israel cannot tolerate its iron-fisted control and exploitation of Palestinian land being given that name. It is also why none of the presidential candidates that spoke at AIPAC dared utter the word—to do so would have laid bare the fact that by shouting out their support for Israel they were at the same time declaring their support for an illegal Occupation that the even the U.S. State Department decries.

Given all the weight placed on the term “Occupation,” we need to know exactly what that term means and why it is become the focal point of so much energetic and committed human rights work here and internationally. Here are 9 core reasons why you should care about the Occupation, and know what our mainstream political leaders and even some educators do not want you to know.

1. The Occupation is illegal.

What do we mean by the “Israeli Occupation”? In 1967 Israel seized what is now termed the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) in an act of war. The United Nations condemned this action, and expressed that condemnation in Resolution 242 (November 1967), which emphasizes “the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war and the need to work for a just and lasting peace in which every State in the area can live in security.” The UN document sets forth principles calling for “withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict; termination of all claims or state of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force.” This is a precise statement that insists on the inviolable right of the Palestinians to a state.

Instead of Israel acting in accord with this resolution, which was passed unanimously by the UN Security Council–of which the United States is a member–what we have is an unbroken history of Israel denying Palestinians their rights and land stretching back decades. What is more, not only has there been no the reduction in the appropriation of Palestinian land, Israel has also persistently expanded its illegal acquisition of land and its building of illegal settlements. As UN Secretariat Ban Ki-Moon has noted, these actions have contributed to the rise in violence in the OPT. He called the settlements an “affront to the world.”

Human Rights Watch describes Israel’s numerous violations of international law and human rights conventions:

Israeli settlements in the West Bank violate the laws of occupation. The Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits an occupying power from transferring its citizens into the territory it occupies and from transferring or displacing the population of an occupied territory within or outside the territory. The Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the International Criminal Court, establishes the court’s jurisdiction over war crimes including the crimes of transfer of parts of the civilian population of an occupying power into an occupied territory, and the forcible transfer of the population of an occupied territory. The ICC has jurisdiction over crimes committed in or from the territory of the State of Palestine, now an ICC member, beginning in June 13, 2014, the date designated by Palestine in a declaration accompanying its accession.
Israel’s confiscation of land, water, and other natural resources for the benefit of settlements and residents of Israel also violate the Hague Regulations of 1907, which prohibit an occupying power from expropriating the resources of occupied territory for its own benefit. In addition, Israel’s settlement project violates international human rights law, in particular, Israel’s discriminatory policies against Palestinians that govern virtually every aspect of life in the area of the West Bank under Israel’s exclusive control, known as Area C, and that forcibly displace Palestinians while encouraging the growth of Jewish settlements.

U.S. State Department spokesperson John Kirby plainly states:

“Our long-standing position on settlements is clear. We view Israeli settlements activity as illegitimate and counterproductive to the cause of peace. We remain deeply concerned about Israel’s current policy on settlements including construction, planning and retroactive legalisations.”

When U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro drew attention to the double legal standards applied in the Occupied Territory–“At times it seems Israel has two standards of adherence to rule of law in the West Bank – one for Israelis and one for Palestinians”—he was dismissively called a “little Jew boy” by an aide to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Given all this, it is more than strange to hear Hillary Clinton and others defend a regime that continues practices that our own State Department has condemned as illegal and highly problematic for U.S. and world interests, and, in Clinton’s case, even promise to increase military aid to this regime so it can act even more effectively against international law and US policy.

2. It violates human rights, and Israel acts with impunity.

Along with dismissing the slew of international human rights listed above, Israel has so blocked any inspection of the Occupied Palestinian Territory by human rights inspectors that Makarim Wibisono, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, tendered his resignation in January. He stated: “Unfortunately, my efforts to help improve the lives of Palestinian victims of violations under the Israeli occupation have been frustrated every step of the way.”

More from the UN:

The Special Rapporteur stressed that upon taking up the mandate in June 2014, he was assured that he would have access to the Occupied Palestinian Territory. “I took up this mandate with the understanding that Israel would grant me access, as an impartial and objective observer,” he said.
Repeated requests for access, both written and oral, have been unsuccessful. “With no reply from Israel to my latest request, in October 2015, to have access by the end of 2015, it is with deep regret that I accept the premise upon which I took up the mandate, which is to have direct access to the victims in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, will not be fulfilled,” the Special Rapporteur said.
Mr. Wibisono said that that throughout his tenure, the Government of the State of Palestine cooperated fully with the mandate.
The Special Rapporteur voiced deep concern at the lack of effective protection of Palestinian victims of continuing human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law.

Wibisono’s predecessor as UN Special Rapporteur, Richard Falk, had this to say in 2013: “Neither Israel nor its proxies can justify the facts on the ground in occupied Palestine, so they distract, distort and defame to allow the violations to go on.”

Per the UN:

In a news release, Mr. Falk underlined that “irresponsible and dishonest smear campaigns to discredit those who document these realities do not change the facts on the ground after Israel launched the war that began its occupation of Palestine.”
According to Mr. Falk, Israel is actively confiscating Palestinian water and land, having seized an additional 60,000 square meters of land near Nablus just this week.
“Israel continues to annex Palestinian territory; Israel persists in demolishing Palestinians’ homes and populating Palestine with Israeli citizens; Israel maintains a policy of collectively punishing 1.75 million Palestinians through its imposition of a blockade on the Gaza Strip; and Israel prosecutes its occupation with impunity, refusing to accept the world’s calls to respect international law,” he said.

In its Overview of the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Amnesty International echoes precisely these concerns:

In the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, Israeli forces committed unlawful killings of Palestinian civilians, including children, and detained thousands of Palestinians who protested against or otherwise opposed Israel’s continuing military occupation, holding hundreds in administrative detention. Torture and other ill-treatment remained rife and were committed with impunity. The authorities continued to promote illegal settlements in the West Bank, and severely restricted Palestinians’ freedom of movement, further tightening restrictions amid an escalation of violence from October, which included attacks on Israeli civilians by Palestinians and apparent extrajudicial executions by Israeli forces. Israeli settlers in the West Bank attacked Palestinians and their property with virtual impunity. The Gaza Strip remained under an Israeli military blockade that imposed collective punishment on its inhabitants. The authorities continued to demolish Palestinian homes in the West Bank and inside Israel, particularly in Bedouin villages in the Negev/Naqab region, forcibly evicting their residents. They also detained and deported thousands of African asylum-seekers, and imprisoned Israeli conscientious objectors.

This post first appeared on Culture & Society, please read the originial post: here