To the Editor:
That previous US Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk (Op-Ed Aug. 8) can purport to offer solutions to the escalating Israeli-Palestinian crisis without once mentioning the word “occupation” testifies to the extraordinary pro-Israel bias in US policy.
An impartial fact-finding mission recently dispatched by the UN Commission on Human Rights determined that the “root cause” of both the current violence and the chronic conflict is Israel’s continuing occupation of Palestinian land and denial of Palestinians’ right to self-determination. Local and international human rights groups echo this assessment.
The simple solution – consistent with universal principles of international law – is full Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 borders, including dismantling of all illegal settlements and recognition of the rights of Palestinian refugees. After all, in 1993 Israeli and Palestinian leaders explicitly agreed to base the Oslo process on Security Council resolution 242 and its formula of “land for peace”.
Since then, however, successive Israeli governments have seized more Palestinian land and built more Jewish-only settlements than during the entire period from 1967-93. American tax dollars have subsidized this massive and illegal expansion of occupation.
Respected intelligence analysts, including Jane’s Defense Weekly, forecast a full-scale Israeli invasion to decapitate the existing Palestinian leadership structure and grab even larger swathes of Palestinian land. Such an attack is certain to deploy US-supplied fighter planes and attack helicopters against a lightly defended and relatively powerless civilian population. Heavy bloodshed, with a 10:1 ratio of Palestinian to Israeli casualties, is expected.
To prevent this tragedy, the American people must demand that our government end all support for Israel’s occupation and recognize the inalienable right of Palestinians to freedom in their own land.
ROGER NORMAND
The writer is Executive Director of the Center for Economic and Social Rights, New York City