NZ Friends of Israel Association Inc
Fighting racial intolerance in New Zealand and beyond
In a critical blow to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett‘s government late Monday, the coalition failed to pass a directive giving Israel legal jurisdiction over Israelis living in the West Bank that has been approved every five years since 1967.
Opposition MKs applauded following the announcement of the results that the vote fell with 52 votes for it and 58 against it. Failure of the bill led to immediate speculation that the government will soon fall and Israel will head to a new election.
While the world has had its attention fixed on the George Floyd protests and the ongoing threat of COVID-19, a political development with monumental implications has been brewing in the Middle East: Israel’s potential annexation of parts of the West Bank.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised his supporters during multiple election campaigns last year that he would make areas outside of the country’s borders part of the state.
Now his chance is fast approaching. The terms of a government coalition deal he struck with political rival Benny Gantz allow Netanyahu to put annexation to a government vote as early as July 1. The pair reportedly differ over details, but the U.S. ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, is trying to broker an agreement.
What happens with annexation has potentially steep stakes for Israel’s relationship with the United States, with its allies in Europe and beyond, and with American Jews. Some of the country’s fiercest supporters oppose Netanyahu’s annexation push.
The opposition and other factors complicate the chances of annexation happening on July 1, but the possibility remains on the table. So here’s what you need to know before that important date.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told settler leaders on Sunday that he still intends to annex all West Bank settlements on the July 1 date that is the earliest allowed by his coalition deals, but he acknowledged that annexing other lands allocated to Israel under the Trump peace plan will likely take more time, several participants in the meeting told The Times of Israel.
The remarks reaffirmed Netanyahu’s self-declared July 1 target date for extending Israeli sovereignty to all West Bank settlements but also appeared to mark the first time he has admitted to long-reported delays by the joint US-Israeli team tasked with mapping out the further territories to be annexed, mainly in the Jordan Valley.
NZFOI: Hmmm….
PRESS RELEASE
THURSDAY, 25 JUNE 2020
J-LINK AOTEAROA, a group of New Zealand Jews, welcomed Aotearoa-New Zealand’s condemnation of Israel’s illegal plan to annex up to one third of the occupied West Bank in flagrant breach of international law.
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“The Aotearoa-New Zealand government has courageously followed its sponsorship of the 2016 UN Security Council resolution declaring Israel’s West Bank settlements illegal with a powerful statement condemning the planned annexation,” J-LINK spokeswoman Dr. Margalit Toledano.
“Israel is attempting to do this in breach of the Geneva Convention and United Nations international rights while the world’s attention is diverted by Covid19 and Black Lives Matter.
“Jews around the world know this is wrong, illegal and a prescription for bloodshed.”
“The world condemned Russia’s annexation of Crimea and it should damn this equally aggressive action.”
Foreign Affairs Minister Hon Winston Peters today called on Israel to reconsider its illegal plan. He said annexation would gravely undermine the two-state solution, breach international law, and pose significant risks to regional security.
J-LINK, an international network of Jewish organisations committed to democracy and peace, says annexation plans would lead to permanent Israeli military control over millions of Palestinians while denying them basic civil and political rights. It would put an end to Israel’s democracy and kill any hope for a Two state solution and peace in the Middle East.
“This new land grab will intensify the undemocratic and inhumane reality of Israeli’s 53-year occupation of whatever is left of the Palestinian territory. It is prescription for a violent conflict and bloodshed.” Dr Toledano said
Fifty Jewish organisations from all over the world signed J-LINK’s appeal to the Israeli government to take the annexation plan off the Israeli government agenda.
J-Link Aotearoa calls on all democratic countries to follow Aotearoa-New Zealand’s lead against Israel’s illegal plan.
J-LINK Aotearoa is part of J-LINK, an international network of Jewish organisations committed to democracy and peace.
The Authority makes a lot of threats towards the application of sovereignty. However, in many cases the street level thinks differently – and some would rather want to get rid of its rule.
“It is better than a million times for Israel to be responsible for the whole area”
When the question of what the Palestinians think is, there is a gap between the will of the people and the statements made by its leaders. It could be seen for two decades – during Arafat, what he also wanted the people to want, but for the current PA chairman, Abu Mazen, is something else. He says one thing and the people want something else and are not afraid to say it.
When the Palestinian Authority wanted to burn the area, citizens wanted work permits in Israel, and when the United States moved the embassy to Jerusalem, the Palestinians promised a wave of violence and the public chose not to take to the streets.
One of the Palestinians who wrote News 13 met with him said: “I am from the village of Jeba. I want the villagers to be happy. They are subject to the authority today and they want Netanyahu and no one else, they want an Israeli identity card.” The realization that there is an opportunity to get another life out of the gut brings out talk they once heard only inside the houses.
According to another resident of the Occupied Territories, “It is better than a million times for Israel to be responsible for the entire territory. We are prepared to be under Israeli military shoes and not under Abu Mazen’s head.”
A meeting with a Palestinian businessman explained the will of the people from another angle: “I do not want a state – I want money. Money is better than a state. All the Palestinian people want it. The authority has looted us and destroyed us.”
Again, this gaping chasm between the PA and its leaders and the people who, after 25 years, understand that Palestinian sovereignty has not really improved their lives. The dream on the way to the country is also stuck in the middle. The question is what will be heard in a month, the voice of the PA leaders or the voice of the people who totally think otherwise?
Source: Zvi Yehezkeli (9 June 2020). In the Eyes of the Palestinians. Channel 13 News. https://13news.co.il/item/news/politics/state-policy/in-the-eyes-of-the-palestinians-1075194/. Accessed 11 June 2020. Translated.
Has the European Union reached a tipping point over Israel? Or to be more precise, is the Europeans’ bluff finally to be called over Israel’s proposal to extend its sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria?
The E.U. has been mulling over punitive measures against Israel if it goes ahead with what its western critics call “annexation of the occupied territories of the West Bank.”
A number of member states, headed by France along with Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Belgium and Luxembourg are calling for a hard line.
Measures being considered include supporting any U.N. moves against “annexation”; public support of proceedings against Israel currently underway in the International Criminal Court at The Hague; and increasing the boycott of settlements in various ways, along with increased financial support for the Palestinians.
The E.U. and Britain maintain that Israel is illegally occupying the disputed territories, and that its settlements there amount to a transfer of population into those lands in contravention of the Geneva Convention.
This is a serious misreading of international law. Israel is not “occupying” these territories. In law, occupation can only occur if the land belongs to a sovereign power, which was never the case here; and a state can also hold onto land which continues to be used for belligerent purposes against it.
It is also a gross misreading of the Geneva Convention, as the Israelis living in these territories were not transferred but moved there entirely of their own volition.
The animus against Israel by both the E.U. and Britain is of long standing. Let’s rephrase that: the animus against Israel by the European and British political class and intelligentsia is of long standing.
For although the E.U. and Britain condemn Israel for “illegal occupation,” fail to defend it against the malice of the United Nations and endorse the meretricious rulings against it at the European Court of Justice, they are nevertheless trading with Israel at ever-increasing levels as well as depending heavily upon it for crucial military and intelligence support.
So while defaming Israel in the court of world opinion, they have been simultaneously milking its genius for their own benefit. They want to hurt it — but not enough to hurt themselves.
Their hostility is the product of three factors: historic and ineradicable anti-Jewish prejudice; the pathological inability to deal with collective guilt over the Holocaust; and the perception that their interests have for decades lain with the Arab world.
Now, though, something more interesting has been occurring to undermine this collective animus.
