[News] ADC SF - Gaza Disengagement will not end suffering of Palestinians

[Anti-Imperialist News]

[]

For Immediate Release
August 15, 2005

American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee – San Francisco Chapter
Press Contacts: Jess Ghannam, Ramiz Rafeedie – 415-861-7444

"Gaza Disengagement will not end the suffering of Palestinians"

Israel has a unilateral obligation to withdraw its troops and settlers and 
end its occupation of Gaza as well as of the other Palestinian lands under 
international law.

But the Gaza "disengagement" is not designed to, and will not result in an 
end to occupation.  Prime Minister Sharon has stressed that Israel will 
never give up major West Bank settlement blocs, with the apparent blessing 
of the Bush administration.

The “disengagement” plan seems to be more of a way to tighten the grip on 
West Bank and carry out more land confiscation in and around 
Jerusalem.  The Israel Lands Administration, a government agency last 
month, released a tender inviting bids for the purchase of 22 plots for 
building single-family homes in the West Bank settlement of Maale Adumim, 
near Jerusalem

Further the “Gaza Disengagement” will make things worse for Palestinians 
considering the following:

** The "disengagement" will leave Gazans worse off economically, socially 
and politically than they are now, isolating the 1.2 million Palestinians 
in a besieged prison surrounded and controlled on all sides by Israel.

** Sharon's goal is to maximize the chaos and televised scenes of Israeli 
pain and division, so he can refuse any international demands that he 
withdraw from the West Bank and Jerusalem, claiming that the price Israel 
is paying is too high to go further. "Gaza first" will become Gaza last.

** The construction of Israel's Wall continues despite the rulings of the 
International Court of Justice finding it illegal; it will soon be 
completed, locking West Bank Palestinians into tiny cantons separated from 
each other and from their own land.

** All Israeli settlements - from tiny "outposts" to the largest settlement 
cities such as Ma'ale Adumim and Ariel - are illegal, violating the Fourth 
Geneva Convention's prohibition against moving any population from the 
occupying country into the occupied territory.


Gaza Disengagement Talking Points – ADC-SF<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = 
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />


    * The Gaza disengagement plan does not mean an end to the occupation.
        * While Israel is dismantling the settlements in Gaza, it is 
actually building more settlements in the West Bank.
        * Under the plan, Israel will retain complete control over Gaza’s 
borders, airspace, seaports, airports, and water.
        * The plan will effectively turn Gaza into a prison for the 
Palestinians. Israel will retain complete control over who enters or leaves 
the Gaza Strip.
        * Israel will retain control over imports and exports to and from 
Gaza.
        * Under the plan, Israel has the unilateral right to invade the 
Gaza Strip whenever it chooses. This means continued land confiscation, 
home demolitions, and assassinations.


    * While Israel pulls out of the Gaza, it tightens the noose on the West 
Bank.
        * Under the disengagement plan, large portions of the West Bank 
will be annexed into Israel.
        * Israel will continue to build illegal, Jewish-only settlements in 
the West Bank.
        * Israel will continue to expropriate water resources away from 
Palestinians in order to feed it into its settlements.
        * The plan gives Israel diplomatic coverage necessary to continue 
its settlement activity in the West Bank.


    * Israel will continue to build the Apartheid Wall.
        * Under the plan, Israel will continue to build its Apartheid Wall 
in the West Bank, thus separating Palestinian children from their schools, 
workers from their jobs and farms, and the sick from access to hospitals 
and health care.
        * The Wall imprisons Palestinian within several disjointed 
Bantustans and acts as a barrier preventing Palestinians from accessing 
their jobs, schools and hospitals and other essentials.
        * Israel will continue to manipulate and re-draw the borders of the 
West Bank.


    * The disengagement plan disregards the issues that are at the core of 
the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict.
        * The rights of the 1.5 million Palestinians living within Israel 
continue to be ignored.
        * Under the plan, the 6,000,000 Palestinian refugees will still be 
unable to return home.
        * Israel still continues its illegal occupation of Jerusalem.
        * The theft of Palestinian land and Israel apartheid system 
continue unabated.




The Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977
www.freedomarchives.org 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20050817/91e7e7b0/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: clip_image002.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 6307 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20050817/91e7e7b0/attachment.jpg>