END THE WAR!END THE OCCUPATION!
END STATE TERROR!
END AMERICAN EMPIRE!
ICAHD, the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, condemns all attacks on civilians, whether by Israel, the Palestinians or Hezbollah. We recognize Israel’s ever-repressive Occupation as the main source of conflict and instability in our region. Had Israel taken the many opportunities it had to secure a just peace, the peoples of the region would never have reached this point of despair and futile violence. Israel believes it can achieve "quiet" and normalcy through military power while retaining its Occupation, encouraged and protected by the US. This is the true convergence: Israel’s Occupation in return for an active Israeli role in expanding American Empire.
Israel’s disproportionate attacks on both Gaza and Lebanon, on the pretext of freeing Israeli soldiers, is intended to destroy any resistance to the imposition of the apartheid regime represented by Olmert’s "convergence plan." Indeed, the democratically-elected government of Hamas, which had been moving steadily towards a negotiated two-state settlement, constitutes the greatest threat to the perpetuation of Israel’s Occupation, as witnessed by Israel’s delegitimization of that government and its systematic campaign to liquidate Hamas leaders. Israel’s illegal and immoral use of collective punishment against the civilian population of Gaza, in which 3000 houses have been demolished in recent years and its months-long campaign of starving the local population into submission continues, must be condemned. ICAHD will work with the international courts to bring the military and political perpetrators of these crimes against humanity to justice.
Hezbollah, whose very existence comes by way of resistance to repeated Israeli invasions, illustrates how counter-productive are the attempts of Israel and the US to impose by force a "new order" on the Middle East, whose only rationale is to serve Israeli Occupation and American Empire. Without equating the two politically or in terms of power, both Israel and Hezbollah must refrain from attacks on civilian populations.
Israel, of course, could not have reached this point without American and European complicity. Indeed, American refusal to countenance a ceasefire only affirms Israel’s role as its military surrogate in the Middle East. Their shared aim is a Pax Americana over the region for which Israel will be allowed to keep its settlements.
The war must end immediately, all attacks on civilians must cease immediately and permanently and UN resolutions must be implemented. The international community, especially a complicit and passive Europe, must intervene. Israel, which holds some 9000 Palestinian and Arab political prisoners, must negotiate a meaningful exchange in return for its captured soldiers. Above all, Israel must realize that there is no military solution to the conflict in our region. Relinquishing its Occupation in favor of genuine negotiations with the Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese is the only guarantee of Israel’s security. America must cease to exacerbate regional conflicts for its own ends.
END THE WAR!
END THE OCCUPATION!
END ISRAELI STATE TERROR!
END ATTACKS ON CIVILIANS!
END AMERICAN EMPIRE!
[Photos at a demonstration at the U.S. Consulate, West Jerusalem on 31st July]
