The civilians Israeli forces injured last week are not terrorists. The only way states have been able to justify the denial of rights to or perpetration of violence against communities within their borders have been through criminalizing and dehumanizing various communities.
As in the past, apathy, indifference or lack of education support a violent and oppressive status quo that currently violates international humanitarian law in Palestine. Furthermore, at stake in the multi-billion-dollar American-Israeli occupation of Palestine are contemporary issues that I and many other Stanford students care about, including the increase of racial profiling, police brutality against nonviolent political dissidents, American immigration policy and the welfare of the global poor.
The Oakland police that used rubber bullets, tear gas, shot and critically injured an Iraq War veteran and dozens of others during the Occupy movement were trained a month before alongside Israeli police.
Over 9, local, state and federal law enforcement officials have participated in Israeli-led training sessions that have led to increasingly militaristic surveillance and police control in airports, malls and cities across the nation. The state of Israel has provided Brazil and other Latin American countries with hundreds of millions of dollars in drones for police surveillance.
The bulldozers that Israel has used to demolish 25, Palestinian homes since and internally displace over , are provided by Caterpillar, Inc. American public opinion has long tilted in favour of Israel and against the Palestinians, in part because Israel had a superior PR machine. But headline-grabbing, violent actions by pro-Palestinian groups such as the Munich Massacre in which 11 Israeli Olympic athletes were killed also generated sympathy for Israel.
More Americans are warming to the Palestinian cause, according to an annual survey conducted by Gallup. The February poll found that 25 percent of Americans sympathise more with Palestinians — a 2-percentage-point increase over the previous year and a full six percentage points higher than Favourable ratings for the Palestinian Authority also hit a new high of 30 percent — a 7-percentage-point improvement over That same Gallup poll found that 58 percent of Americans sympathise more with Israel, while 75 percent of Americans rate Israel favourably.
Members of the organisation wield influence through grassroots organising, advocacy and fundraising among American Jews in the US as well as Christian evangelical churches. Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is also a regular attendee.
A smaller, pro-Israel group called J Street organised by Democrats has sought to build a constituency in US politics that is supportive of Israel and Palestinian rights. Pro-Israel interest groups donate millions to US federal political candidates. That is about twice as much as they donated during the campaign, according to OpenSecrets. Former President Trump, driven by support for Israel from evangelical Christians and a like-minded leader in Netanyahu, was a staunch defender of Israel during his four years in office.
But pro-Palestinian groups are not nearly as active in US federal campaign spending. Within the US Democratic Party, a growing faction of progressives who support the Palestinians has gained prominence on the national stage. Lead among them are Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, both former contenders for the Democratic nomination for president in Sanders and Warren have called for conditioning US military aid to Israel on Palestinian human rights.
How can they credibly claim to stand for human rights? Joe Biden is not only US president to back Israel amid criticism of military operations and abuses against Palestinians.
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