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20th Anniversary of Berlin Wall marked by West’s silence on Israel’s apartheid wall
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This week Western leaders are tripping over themselves celebrating the 20th anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin Wall. Statesmen and politicians from the EU to America are heralding the defeat of tyranny and success of democracy with the wall’s demolition. Unfortunately their self-congratulatory rhetoric falls way short with their absolute silence regarding Israel’s apartheid wall.
Israel of course refers to it as a separation wall. This is patently false. The wall doesn’t separate pre-1967 Israel from the West Bank. If it actually was a separation wall it would traverse the Green Line border instead of illegally appropriating acres and acres of Palestinian land and separating Palestinians from each other. The wall serves to demonstrate just how much Palestinian land Israel intends to annex as its own.
The fact that the EU and especially the United States remain silent about this apartheid wall also demonstrates just how hollow their claim of wanting to broker a fair peace with the Palestinians and the creation of their own sovereign state. Last week a small group of Palestinians tore down a section of the wall. Where were the western well wishers congratulating these brave souls? Where was President Obama telling the Israeli Prime Minister, “Tear down that wall, Mr. Netanyahu”? All were conspicuously absent.
When finally completed approximately 85% of the apartheid wall will sit inside the West Bank. That creates an untenable situation where 9.5 percent of the West Bank and 35,000 West Bank Palestinians will reside between the barrier and the Green Line that marks the 1967 border with Israel.
In 2004 the World Court issued a resolution calling for those parts of the barrier that are inside the West Bank to be torn down and for all further construction in the territory to cease. Israel and their Western allies have but ignored the World Court’s resolution.
Israel's own Supreme Court ruled against the route of the wall near the Palestinian village of Bilin in 2007, stating that the path was violating Palestinian rights. The Israeli government has all but ignored the ruling of its own Supreme Court with all western nations standing on the sidelines like the three monkeys, see no evil, hear no evil and certainly do not speak any evil against Israel. That could get you declared an anti-Semite or at the very least irrelevant. Just look at what the sycophant supporters of Israeli’s right wing killing machine did to any who dared find credence in the Goldstone Report, accusing a moderate pro-Israel organization like J Street as being “toy Jews” and calling renowned journalist, Naomi Klein an anti-Semite.
It only took less than three years from the end of WWII for Israel to be created. Over six decades later the Palestinians still do not have a sovereign state of their own. This impasse is in no small part due to Israeli’s intransigence and the United States’ willingness to allow Israel this stance. Only two U.S. Presidents have ever had the courage to stand up to Israel. The first was Dwight Eisenhower when Israel illegally commandeered the Suez Canal in 1953. The second was George H. W. Bush when he demanded that Israel freeze settlement construction and adhered to past agreements. Both Presidents backed up their demands by withholding U.S. taxpayer financial aid and loan guarantees to Israel. The Israelis whined and grumbled, but in the end they complied.
Unfortunately the Obama Administration has chosen not to take much of a stand when ti comes to Israeli violations of international law. The President traveled to Cairo and gave a swell sounding speech, but so far his actions and those of the Secretary of State have been nothing short of capitulation to the right-wing government of Netanyahu.
Celebrating the anniversary of the demolition of the Berlin Wall would be the perfect opportunity for President Obama and other western leaders to demand that Israel must also demolish its apartheid wall and cease their occupation of Palestinian territories. Unfortunately for the world and especially the Palestinians these western leaders of democracy have fallen far short of the lofty rhetoric they spew like a Madison Avenue pitchman pimping the public with the promise of a better, bolder, brighter laundry detergent. Their cowardly silence will only ensure Israel’s continued illegal acquisition of Palestinian land and their apartheid policies.
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