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PRESS RELEASE Jewish Voice for Peace Applauds Human Rights Watch Call
for American Economic Pressure to Stop Israeli Settlement Expansion Contact: Mitchell Plitnick (510) 465-1777 (office) Friday January 6, 2006 (Oakland, CA) - American peace group Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) enthusiastically supports the December 27, 2005 letter to President Bush from Human Rights Watch which called on the president to use all available means, including economic pressure, to hold Israel to its obligations to stop settlement expansion in the West Bank.
JVP has maintained for years that the only way Israel will have sufficient incentive to end their 38-year occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem is for the United States to withhold its military aid to Israel until that occupation ends. As a step toward such a policy, JVP has advocated that aid to Israel be reduced by the amount spent on developing settlements in the West Bank, as well as on the wall which Israel is illegally building there.
Israeli contentions that none of the American money goes to settlements ring hollow in light of the fact that funds are easily moved around. If the US withholds funds because Israel both refuses to meet its obligations under international law and continues to violate US policy, this will constitute significant pressure for settlement construction to cease. We believe that this would, finally, convince Israel to stop expanding its provocative and destructive settlements.
Human Rights Watch’s position is grounded firmly not only in international law, but also on stated US policy. This includes the Roadmap, which requires Israel not only to desist from all settlement expansion but also to remove all of the so-called “outposts” which have sprung up since March, 2001. Yet Israel brazenly defies this by continuing to build and publicly announcing plans for even more construction.
JVP renews its call on the United States to hold Israel to its obligations under the Roadmap and under international law. We call on our government to use all diplomatic, political and economic means at its disposal to stop Israeli settlement expansion at once. _________________________________________________________________________ Jewish Voice for Peace is a national grassroots organization dedicated to promoting a US foreign policy in the Middle East based on democracy, human rights and respect for international law. JVP is a voice for the silent majority of American Jews who polls consistently show supports a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and an end to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. For information about the conflict and expert sources go to www.JewishVoiceforPeace.org.
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