How Americans Can End The Israeli Occupation And Free Palestine: 3 Steps
By Robert Barsocchini
04 August, 2014
Countercurrents.org
1) Identify the Israeli Dictatorship's Source of Power
The government of Israel acts as an expansionist , apartheid , terror dictatorship over Palestine.
Israel's source of power for maintaining its dictatorship over Palestine is:
Illegal US Funding
Approximately 3.1 billion dollars per year are taken from US citizens and illegally given to the Israeli dictatorship in the form of cash and high-tech lethal weaponry .
Despite the illegality of aiding the Israeli dictatorship, it is the single biggest recipient of US foreign aid, substantially increased under Obama despite three major Wounded Knee -style massacres of Palestinian civilians carried out while Obama has been in office.
US funding is the Israeli dictatorship's Achilles heel . Sever the flow of US funds to the Israeli dictatorship and, as in the cases of the US-funded South African apartheid and US-funded genocidal Indonesian regimes , Israel's ability to maintain its brutal expansion, occupation, and dictatorship will end.
2) Attack and Sever the Israeli Dictatorship's Source of Power using these Non-Violent Tactics
Use these Non-Violent tactics to force the government here in the US to stop illegally aiding the brutal Israeli occupation and dictatorship over Palestine:
- Group or mass petitions (sign this petition from Amnesty International to stop illegal US aid to Israel)
- Slogans, caricatures, and symbols (“End the Occupation”, “Free Palestine”, “Stop US Aid to Israeli Dictatorship”, etc.)
- Leaflets, pamphlets, and books
- Wearing of [ Palestinian ] symbols
- Displays of portraits
- Flood government “ representatives ” with the demand
- Withholding or withdrawal of allegiance
- Public fast, hunger strike
These are just a few examples of effective tactics. For all 198 methods of non-violent action from Dr. Gene Sharp's pamphlet From Dictatorship to Democracy , see this list .
The tactics must be carried out individually and collectively. Use them any time, alone, with a friend, with multiple friends, with allies, and with large groups or organizations. However, as Dr. Sharp notes, “…always be alert for the presence of agents provocateurs whose mission will be to incite [people] to violence.” Crucially, violence must be avoided or the cause will be undermined and set back (in addition to violence being illegal and almost always morally indefensible).
As documented, US citizens and populations worldwide are already using these non-violent tactics in pursuit of ending Israel's occupation of and dictatorship over Palestine by cutting illegal US funding for the Israeli dictatorship.
"30,000 protesters from across the country took to the streets around the White House and downtown Washington"
See here for more pictures of the ongoing protests around the US and world.
To reach the goal of ending illegal US aid to Israel, we simply need to continue to increase American participation until the outcome is achieved.
3) Be Clear on the Goal
The goal is:
End the brutal Israeli dictatorship over Palestine by severing its source of power: illegal US funding.
US funding for Israel can be legally reinstated once Israel ends all forms of its dictatorship over Palestine, respects human rights, and obeys international law.
International law requires Israel to completely withdraw all presence from Palestine.
That means Israel must withdraw not only its forces but also its settlers, all of whom are in Palestine illegally, just as colonial France withdrew its settlers from Algeria, and as many colonial settler states were forced to decolonize the countries they abused.
International law further requires Israel to end its illegal blockade of Gaza, which, under international law, is a form of occupation.
Israeli-Occupied Palestinian Territory is legally defined, by the world's highest court , virtually every country in the world via the United Nations, and all major human rights organizations, as the West Bank , East Jerusalem , and the Gaza Strip .
Amnesty International:
“The area comprising the OPT [Occupied Palestinian Territories] is made up of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip – areas that Israel occupied in 1967 and has continued to control during the more than four decades since then.”
Source: “ Trigger Happy – Israel's Use of Excessive Force in the West Bank “, by Amnesty International, February, 2014, page 6
The USA and Israel are virtually the only two entities that reject the legal and democratic consensus that Israel must withdraw all presence from Palestine, which is why non-violent resistance tactics are required to force the government in the US to stop illegally aiding the Israeli dictatorship.
Keep in Mind:
- These field-tested tactics are shown to work and will end the US-funded Israeli colonial terror dictatorship over Palestine if put into effect by enough of the US population. Therefore, to end the Israeli dictatorship, disseminate this information as widely as possible, put it to use, and encourage others to do the same.
- It is illegal under US and International law to aid the Israeli dictatorship because it is a consistent violator of human rights. Thus, forcing an end to US aid for Israel until Israel obeys international law and respects human rights is legally required, and will end the Israeli dictatorship over Palestine.
- Israel has for decades been the single biggest recipient of US aid, now at over $3 billion per year, and Obama has requested more military aid for Israel than any other president . With Israel as the USA's main ally – a nuclear ally, at that – for controlling the oil-rich Middle East , those who dictate US policy are not going to willingly stop using our money to uphold the brutal Israeli colonial dictatorship.
- However, they do not need to be willing. US Southerners did not willingly grant rights to African Americans. They were forced to do so against their will. South Africa did not willingly give up its apartheid regime. It was forced to do so by public pressure.
- People are sometimes forced to do obey the law and do the right thing even though they don't want to and will only do it kicking and screaming. This will be the case when those who dictate US policy are forced to stop using our money to finance the Israeli dictatorship over Palestine.
- Be wary of “negotiations” from the government in the US, Israel, or any other source. Accept only a complete end to illegal US aid to Israel until the conditions for reinstating aid are achieved and recognized by the world and its legal authoritative bodies (the USA and Israel are not international legal bodies, let alone neutral parties). (On the danger of negotiations, see From Dictatorship to Democracy pamphlet, chapter 2)
- It is highly advisable to read through or listen to Dr. Sharp's pamphlet, From Dictatorship to Democracy .
Dr. Noam Chomsky , August 3 rd , 2014, affirms that forcing the USA to stop illegally arming the Israeli terror dictatorship is of utmost importance:
“ The media constantly intone that Hamas is dedicated to the destruction of Israel. In reality, Hamas leaders have repeatedly made it clear that Hamas would accept a two-state settlement in accord with the international consensus that has been blocked by the U.S. and Israel for 40 years.
In contrast, Israel is dedicated to the destruction of Palestine, apart from some occasional meaningless words, and is implementing that commitment.”
Israel's terror dictatorship will continue, says Dr. Chomsky, “if the U.S. maintains its decisive and virtually unilateral support for Israeli crimes and its rejection of the long-standing international consensus on diplomatic settlement”.
However, he says, “[i]f the U.S. decided to join the world, the impact would be great.”
“U.S. law requires that ‘no security assistance may be provided to any country the government of which engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.'
“…well-conducted educational, organizational and activist effort[s]” will “compel Washington to become part of ‘the international community' and to observe international law and norms.
Nothing could be more significant for the tragic Palestinian victims of many years of violence and repression.”
Dr. Noam Chomsky is an American former professor of linguistics at MIT, philosopher, cognitive scientist, logician, and political commentator and activist. He is the author of over 100 books, and is the eighth most cited scholar in history, just behind psychiatrist Sigmund Freud and just ahead of philosopher Georg Hegel.
To Prepare with More Knowledge, See:
- My piece, Facts All US Citizens Need to Know About Israel and Palestine – This piece (also here and here ) has been shared well over 100,000 times since it was published approximately three weeks ago.
Spread knowledge to educate and inform others.. Given factual and complete information, people overwhelmingly support what is obviously right.
Source:
Instructions in this piece are based on:
- Non-violent tactics that have worked to end dictatorships and settler-colonial occupations
- Scholar Gene Sharp's pamphlet, From Dictatorship to Democracy , which was used in 2011 to overthrow, among others, the 30-year, US-backed, brutal Egyptian dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak. The methods have worked over and over again around the world.
Disclaimer :
Non-violent, legal tactics only . Period. Violence is illegal, almost always morally indefensible, will make things worse, not better, and is in no way whatsoever being advocated here. “…military resistance against dictatorships does not strike them where they are weakest, but rather where they are strongest.” – Dr. Gene Sharp
Final Notes:
- Help these impoverished, indigenous, Semitic people without means, Palestinians, who are being sadistically eradicated and intentionally driven from their land by cruel, colonizing terrorists, Israelis, whose ongoing and expanding campaign of land-stealing, terrorism, ethnic cleansing, and annexation is fully and illegally funded with American tax money.
- As Amnesty International said of Israel's 2009 massacre in Gaza, it would not have been possible without US support.
- Feel embarrassment and shame for Israeli officials when they whine and complain about how horrible it is that the poor people they have terrorized, murdered, repressed, and dispossessed since 1948 fight back.
- Slaves and victims of settler/colonial terror and apartheid (the Irish, South Africans, Algerians, etc.) have always fought back, and will always fight back.
- Over the last several decades, Israel has taken approximately 100 billion dollars worth of aid from Americans. Instead of using it to withdraw from Palestine and build a thriving, admirable country, Israel has chosen to remain an expansionist, apartheid, terrorist dictatorship committed to continuing its project of wiping Palestine off the map.
- As of now , 1,849 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's current massacre, the overwhelming majority of them civilians, and over 20 percent of them children under the age of 18. On the Israeli side, 67 have been killed, 64 of them troops.
- Even though Obama and congress have increased the flow of US arms and aid to Israel during its current massacre of civilians in Gaza, Israel's repulsive terrorism has caused some US officials to issue verbal condemnations of Israel for targeting civilians in 7 UN shelters.
We must seize the moment and force the US government to stop feeding the Israeli terror dictatorship with our money.
-
The time has come when US citizens can end the horror.
- We did it when the USA supported the Indonesian genocide in East Timor for a quarter century.
- We did it when the USA, isolated from the world community, kept the disgusting South African apartheid regime going for decades , got Nelson Mandela imprisoned , and kept him on the US “terrorist” list until Bush finally had to remove him in 2008.
- We can do it again now.
- Never forget what the Israeli terrorists have done and continue to do. Don't let them continue, and never let them do it again.
-
Robert Barsocchini is an investigative journalist, historical researcher, and writer for the film industry.
Comments are moderated