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After 12 prominent Western nations last week announced they would ban or restrict trade in goods manufactured or produced by Israeli settlers in the West Bank, Israel began threatening to close their embassies. Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, \u2060Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the UK announced they would introduce their own national sanctions on Israel\u2019s settlements or support existing EU restrictions.<\/p>\n
The import restrictions will target the racist settlement system, which is built on a discriminatory structure that strips Christians and Muslims of their legally owned lands and hands them over to Jewish Israelis for development and exploitation.<\/p>\n
Israel reacted with anger when the UK joined the boycott by issuing a widespread ban that targets all products produced in the West Bank by Israeli settlers, as well as many companies that provide services in the settlements. Tel Aviv ordered the closure of the UK\u2019s consulate in East Jerusalem.<\/p>\n
Britain is not closing its eyes to Israel\u2019s illegal actions and Tel Aviv\u2019s closure of the consulate shows how the move has shocked Israel\u2019s governing regime.<\/p>\n
\nBritain is not closing its eyes to Israel\u2019s illegal actions and Tel Aviv\u2019s response shows how shocked it is<\/p>\n
Ray Hanania<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The boycott helps redraw the line that separates the Israeli government\u2019s \u201clegal\u201d and \u201cillegal\u201d acts. This line has been blurred over the years by political manipulation and accommodation.<\/p>\n
Under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has served three terms totaling nearly 19 years in office, Israel has merged its illegal, violent policies into a strategy of asserting self-defense in the face of terrorism and antisemitism.<\/p>\n
In fact, Israel\u2019s policies of confiscating (i.e., stealing) lands owned by Palestinian Christians and Muslims and building racist Jewish-only settlements on them is a form of terrorism that is ongoing and more destructive than any one violent terrorist attack.<\/p>\n
The numbers tell the whole story of Israeli racism. In 1948, the new state of Israel took control of 78 percent of the historic lands of Palestine, steadily stripping land rights from non-Jews and putting them under the exclusive perpetual control of the Jewish National Fund. Land placed in this fund can only be owned by Israel and Jews, not Christians or Muslims, and is managed by the Israel Land Authority.<\/p>\n
In 1967, Israel occupied the remaining 22 percent of Palestine\u2019s land and slowly began chipping away at Palestinians\u2019 rights, taking their land into Jewish ownership via a settler movement funded by Israel\u2019s government and subsidized indirectly by hundreds of billions of dollars granted from the US.<\/p>\n
As I have written many times, my family has been violated, with Israel destroying our home, roads and water well, while prohibiting my Christian Palestinian descendants from ever developing the land the way Jews are allowed to.<\/p>\n
Worse is that these terrorist settlers grow products on the stolen Palestinian lands, merge them with other products produced inside Israel and then sell them in markets around the world, conveying a false sense of legitimacy.<\/p>\n
\nIsrael\u2019s conduct has fueled a backlash against pro-Israel candidates ahead of the US\u2019 midterm elections<\/p>\n
Ray Hanania<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
But the world is starting to see through this deception \u2014 a criminal act that violates the most basic of international human rights \u2014 and is adding to the pressure on Netanyahu and Israel\u2019s government.<\/p>\n
The most important message in what these 12 Western nations are doing is to clearly state that there is a legal difference between supporting the state of Israel and supporting the government of the state of Israel. Netanyahu and Israel\u2019s leaders have always merged the two concepts as a means to defend their actions.<\/p>\n
When settlers attack Palestinians, the state military steps in and responds to the Palestinians alone, often wrongly accusing them of initiating the violence.<\/p>\n
The imposition and reinforcement of sanctions will help untangle this ugly political knot, in which Israel provides a veneer that disguises the illegal conduct of its occupation.<\/p>\n
The response also gives weight to the movement to achieve a two-state solution as a means of ending the conflict, something the Israeli government has worked hard to undermine, block and erase.<\/p>\n
Netanyahu would like the idea of a two-state solution to disappear from the international dialogue, just as Israel has done everything it can to erase the Palestinian identity of historic Palestine.<\/p>\n
As global criticism of Israel\u2019s double standards and hypocrisies grows, its political champions in America put more time, effort and resources into defending Israel.<\/p>\n
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has been playing a cat-and-mouse game with morality and justice, selectively condemning the settler violence, such as when it targets Christians in villages like Taybeh. He said the Israeli response to UK sanctions would have \u201ca big impact\u201d on Britons.<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump has not spoken forcefully in response to the sanctions, possibly recognizing that Israel\u2019s conduct and the terrorism of Israeli settlers in the Occupied Territories has fueled a backlash against pro-Israel candidates ahead of the November midterm elections that could undermine his presidency and the Republicans\u2019 control of Congress.<\/p>\n
It is a perfect storm that undermines the Israeli propaganda that has distorted the truth about what Israel does to non-Jews. Israel uses violence against Palestinians to pressure them to leave Gaza, East Jerusalem and the West Bank.<\/p>\n
The Israeli government\u2019s policy of stealing lands owned by Christians and Muslims for Jewish ownership must be stopped.<\/p>\n
The actions taken by the UK and 11 other nations last week will help the world untie the Gordian knot of Israel\u2019s deception.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n