On our last day in Israel we met with Jeff Halper, director of ICAHD (Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions). A former citizen, Halper formed ICAHD in 1967 to work for an end to the occupation by focusing public attention on the illegal seizure of palestinian houses by the Israeli government. Since 1967 Israel has demolished over 25,000 Palestinian homes in order to expand settlements, build Israeli only roads, and erect a wall that imprisons Palestinians and cuts them off from their farmland, other Palestinian villages, and the rest of the world.
When we asked Jeff about the recent visit of Netanyahu to the US, he said Netanyahu's public repoach of President Obama and the enthusiastic reception by our Congress to Netanyahu's speech delighted radical Israelis and dismayed those working for peace in both Israel and Palestine. In his opinion, the peace talks are essentially dead - and his government has been given permission to continue the occupation and confiscate more Palestinian land making a viable, contingent Palestinian state impossible.
With such a future ahead for Palestinians, aparteid or revolution are the only possible outcomes...unless world opinion begins to hold Israel accountable.
God save us.
Bonnie Van Overbeke
This guy is whacked, he doesn't read his bible, Abram's promise land from God. He can't figure it out that God blessed Isreal's efforts in 1967, when their enemies were going to wipe them off the map. Fighting against Isreal is fighting against God, which is plain dumb.
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