Call to Action
 | People around the world are joining together in a global Day of Action as
“The World Says No to Israeli Occupation” to protest the 40th
anniversary of Israel’s illegal military occupation of the Palestinian West
Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem, and Syrian Golan Heights.
In the United States,
thousands of people from all over the country will converge on Washington, DC
from June 10-11, 2007
to send a clear message: The United States Says No to Israeli Occupation! |
We know that occupation is wrong. We see U.S.
troops occupying Iraq,
and we say no. We see Israeli troops and civilians occupying Palestinian land,
and we say no again. Wrong in Iraq,
wrong in Palestine.
We in the United States
have a special obligation to protest Israel’s
illegal military occupation because it is our government that provides Israel with the uncritical military, economic,
diplomatic, and corporate support that it needs to sustain and expand its
control of the Palestinian West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East
Jerusalem.
If we do not protest, then we are complicit in the human rights abuses
inflicted daily on Palestinians who are forced to live under Israel’s brutal military
occupation. In its 40 years of military occupation of the West Bank, Gaza
Strip, and East Jerusalem, Israel has killed thousands of Palestinians and
injured tens of thousands; destroyed thousands of homes; uprooted hundreds of
thousands of olive trees; built hundreds of illegal settlements on expropriated
land; denied Palestinians their human rights to food, water, education,
livelihoods, and health care, and imposed a system of checkpoints, walls and
fences, road closures, military bases, barricades, sieges, and curfews that
restrict freedom of movement and collectively punish the entire Palestinian
population.
Israel is committing
these human rights violations with U.S. aid, in violation of the U.S.
Arms Export Control and Foreign Assistance Acts. Every time Israel kills a Palestinian civilian
with an F-16 fighter jet, Apache helicopter gunship, or Boeing JDAM missile, it
is done with our taxpayer dollars in our name. Every time Israel
demolishes a Palestinian home with a Caterpillar bulldozer, it is done with our
taxpayer dollars in our name. Every time Israel steals Palestinian land to
build another settlement, it is done with our taxpayer dollars in our name.
And Israel’s human rights
violations of the Palestinian people are not limited to the Occupied Palestinian
Territories. Both
in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories,
Palestinians are subjected to a system of apartheid. Inside Israel, Palestinian citizens are
discriminated against and cannot exercise their full rights as citizens.
And Israel continues to deny
Palestinian refugees, who were forcibly exiled from their homeland during Israel’s
establishment, their internationally guaranteed right of return.
On the 40th anniversary of Israel’s
military occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East
Jerusalem, we will come together in Washington,
DC to say “The United States Says
No to Israeli Occupation” and to demand:
* An end to US military, economic, diplomatic, and corporate support for
Israel’s illegal military occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, Gaza Strip,
and East Jerusalem.
* A change in US policy to one that supports a just
peace between Palestinians and Israelis based on equality, human rights and
international law, and the full implementation of all relevant UN resolutions.
Sponsored by:
1. US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation
2. United for Peace and Justice