[This is the leaflet I distributed when I joined the protest in Cincinnati on May 31, 2010.]
I join people here in Cincinnati and people around the world in condemning Israel’s attack on the flotilla carrying aid to Palestinians in Gaza, an attack in which at least ten were killed and dozens more seriously injured. The Israeli Defense Forces’ terrorist attack on the convoy of ships from the U.K., Ireland, Algeria, Kuwait, Greece, and Turkey, a flotilla carrying some 700 people from 50 nations and bringing 10,000 tons of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people, is an outrageous act.
We in the United States must demand that President Barack Obama’s administration condemn this attack and break with the U.S.’s longstanding policy of virtually unconditional and uncritical support for Israel.
- Dan La Botz, Ohio Socialist Party candidate for the U.S. Senate
My Position on U.S. Policy in the Middle East
President Obama and previous administrations have stated that Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian Territories captured in 1967 must end. But U.S. government policy has subsidized the Occupation and protected Israel from international political anger over its violent and repressive actions. A reversal of U.S. behavior is necessary as the first step towards Middle East peace.
- The United States must end its policy of unconditional political, financial and military support for Israel.
- A “two-state solution” requires Israel’s return to its 1967 borders. Palestine must have an independent state based on contiguous territory with complete sovereignty.
- The Israeli-Egyptian blockade of Gaza must end immediately. The United States must drop its position that Hamas is a “terrorist organization” and respect the Palestinian people’s freedom to choose their own leaders.
- Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem violate international law. The U.S. government should immediately ban the imports of all goods produced in these settlement (for information on how you can join the movement to boycott these products, see for example: http://jfjfp.com/?s=boycottsettlementgoods ).
- U.S. policy should conform to the principles of human rights and international law, regardless of political pressure by AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) and the Christian religious right.
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