The circumstances facing Palestinians before Oct. 7, 2023, exemplified how deadly the status quo had become. In 2022, Israeli violence killed at least 34 <https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/08/28/west-bank-spike-israeli-killings-palestinian-children> Palestinian children in the West Bank, the most in 15 years, and by mid-2023, that rate was on track to exceed those levels. Yet the Biden administration still saw fit to further legitimize Israel, expanding its diplomatic relations in the region and rewarding it with a U.S. visa waiver <https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/27/us/politics/biden-israel-visa-program.html>. Palestine was largely absent from the international agenda until Israeli Jews were killed on Oct. 7. The fact that Israel and its allies were ill prepared for any kind of challenge to Israeli rule underscores just how invisible the Palestinians were and how sustainable their oppression was deemed to be on the global stage.
This moment of historical rupture offers blood-soaked proof that policies to date have failed, yet countries seek to resurrect them all the same. Instead of taking measures showing a genuine commitment to peace — like meaningfully pressuring Israel to end settlement <https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/feb/12/israeli-settlements-stand-in-the-way-of-peace-biden-can-defund-them-all> building and lift the blockade on Gaza or discontinuing America’s expansive military support <https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/03/29/us-weapons-israel-gaza-war/?utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=wp_news_alert_revere&location=alert> — Washington is doing the opposite. The United States has aggressively wielded its use of its veto at the United Nations Security Council, and even when it abstains, as it did in the recent vote <https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/25/world/middleeast/un-security-council-gaza-ceasefire.html> leading to the first resolution for a cease-fire since Oct. 7, it claims such resolutions are nonbinding. The United States is funding Israel’s military while defunding the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, a critical institution for Palestinians, bolstering the deeply unpopular and illegitimate Palestinian Authority, which many Palestinians now consider to be a subcontractor to the occupation, and subverting <https://www.foreignaffairs.com/israel/gaza-and-end-rules-based-order> international law by limiting avenues of accountability for Israel. In effect, these actions safeguard Israeli impunity. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/01/opinion/two-state-solution-israel-palestine.html -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#29769): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/29769 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/105271022/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
