ADC Condemns Israel's Deadly Raids in West Bank

ADC Condemns Israel's Deadly Raids in West Bank

Washington, DC, June 23rd, 2014 - The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) strongly condemns the recent raids by Israeli security forces throughout the occupied West Bank, killing of innocent Palestinian civilians, and detention of hundreds of Palestinians — including children and prisoners released in the Gilad Shalit deal — without trial. Israel continues to systematically violate Palestinians' universal human rights and illegally occupy Palestinian land under the auspices of Israeli security.

In response to the recent alleged kidnappings of three Israeli boys, Israel has engaged in collective punishment and disproportionately devastated the civilian Palestinian population. Over 1,000 sites have been searched and the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have kept the city of Hebron on complete lockdown for ten days. Today, Mondoweiss reported that “over 350 Palestinians have been arrested in the West Bank and five Palestinians have been shot dead.”

While ADC unequivocally condemns the kidnapping or mistreatment of any human life, Israel has demonstrated a consistent pattern of valuing the lives and rights of Israeli settlers at the expense of Palestinians. ADC adopted the #BringBackOurBoys campaign in order to highlight this moral discrepancy.

ADC supports the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement as a nonviolent way to compel the end of Israel’s continuous human rights violations and illegal occupation of Palestinian territory. Through these nonviolent movements, activists are seeking to create international pressure on Israel to abide by international law and end the occupation of Palestine.

Last week, the United Methodist Church decided to sell over $100,000 of stock in G4S, the world's largest private security company that profits from Israeli prisons. The Methodist church said that the decision to divest was made “due in part to concerns about the company’s involvement in human rights violations in the Israeli prison system and the military occupation of Palestinian territories.” Bill Gates also recently sold his entire stake in G4S, and the security company itself has pledged to end Israeli prison contracts over the next five years.

On Friday, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) voted 310 to 303 to divest from companies that aid the Israeli occupation. The Church held about $21 million in Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard, and Motorola Solutions. These companies profit from the illegal Israeli occupation by selling bulldozers, surveillance technology, and equipment used at checkpoints that all contribute to the oppression of the Palestinian people.

Many Jewish activists with Jewish Voice for Peace attended the convention to show support for human rights and divestment from Israel. At a time when the Israeli Likud government has been employing the tactic of “divide-and-conquer” by passing a law to label Palestinian Christians as non-Arab, this solidarity amongst progressive Christian and Jewish organizations sends a strong statement that we are all on the same page.

The rapidly culminating momentum behind divestment from Israel demonstrates that the Palestinian question is not a racial or religious issue, but a fundamentally moral issue and matter of universal human rights. ADC congratulates the Presbyterian Church and all BDS allies for standing on the right side of history.

www.adc.org

ENDS

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