While in Israel in July, I heard a presentation by Talia Sasson who spent 25 years in Israel’s state attorney’s office and wrote a 2005 report for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on illegal outposts in the West Bank. While the 130 settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law, they are recognized and supported by Israel. But there are an additional 105 outpost settlements that have been illegal even under Israeli law.
Following violent resistance to Israel’s High Court orders to evacuate Amona and Migron, two outposts built on private Palestinian land with falsified purchase papers, the Knesset passed an expropriation law in February 2017 to retroactively legalize all outposts and require some compensation to Palestinian land owners. The court has said such compensation does not change the illegality and is contesting the law.
In August, Jared Kushner went to Israel and reversed long-standing U.S. policy, saying that endorsing a two-state solution for Israel/Palestine would make the U.S. “biased.” Shortly after, Prime Minister Netanyahu told settlers celebrating 50 years of occupying the West Bank, “We are here to stay, forever.”
There are two systems of law in the West Bank: Israeli settlers are protected by Israeli law while Palestinians are under military rule and have few rights. What will be the future for the three million Palestinians in the West Bank? Sasson argues that democracy is based on equality, but health, employment and education are all inferior for Palestinians in the West Bank. For Talia Sasson, “If Israel loses its democratic character, it loses its legitimacy as a homeland of the Jewish people.”
Let your members of Congress know that you want the United States to continue to support a two-state solution to the Israel/Palestine conflict as the only way to preserve Israel’s democracy and guarantee self-determination and a peaceful, secure future for both sides.
EMMA ROUS
Durham
(The writer is the chair of J Street New Hampshire.)