proposed Warfield/Dresser Resolution for Israel/Palestine Peace
note: Current dues paid members of VeteransForPeace are encouraged to sign the official petition at this link: http://www.squadron13.com/WarfieldDresserResolution/ which will insure each signers name is added on the final copy formally sent in for consideration at the next National Convention later this summer.
Otherwise, anyone may sign the petition below.
March 29, 2009
Warfield/Dresser Resolution for Israel/Palestine Peace
Since 1907 the peoples of the world have created a body of international law to prevent the armed violence of war. These are enshrined in key international covenants such as the United Nations Charter, the Nuremberg Charter, the Geneva Conventions, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which have established by consensus the laws of mankind. To maintain its integrity of purpose and secure its objective of world peace, VFP must demand adherence by all nations to these international laws and their enforcement by the international community, in particular by the United States which we represent as citizens, and by any nation supported by the United States.
Israel has remained in continuous defiance of these laws throughout its 61 years of existence. The 1948 Palestinian refugees' right of return, a fundamental right declared in Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and confirmed for these refugees in UN Resolution 194 has never been honored despite Israel's pledge to do so as a condition of its 1949 admission to the United Nations. The illegality of land acquisition through force was again disregarded by Israel in 1967, followed by relentless transfer of the Israeli population into occupied Palestinian land in violation of the 4th Geneva Convention, which also requires an occupying power to protect, not displace and abuse, a population under occupation. Forty-two years of repressive military occupation have continuously violated the Palestinians%u2019 right of self-determination as declared for all people in Chapter 1, Article I, Paragraph 2 of the United Nations Charter to which Israel is a signatory, Articles 13 and 15 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the first article in both the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1976, and United Nations Security Council Resolution 1514 of 1960. The long series of Israeli violations has resulted in passage of some 100 UN resolutions of censure and condemnation as well as 42 Security Council resolutions against Israel vetoed by the US, with the US on each occasion casting the only vote in support of Israel. Israel far surpasses the record of international illegality of any other nation. Under this same body of international law, explicit in Chapter 7, Article 51 of the United Nations Charter affirming the %u201Cinherent right of individual and collective self-defense,%u201D Palestinians have the right to defensively employ armed force against Israel's invasion and occupation which is itself illegal under the United Nations Charter, Chapter 1, Article 2, Paragraphs 3 and 4. Palestinian resistance violates international law only when civilians are targeted, which is difficult to avoid when they lack air defenses against Israeli military aircraft and an air force or precision artillery to target IDF installations.
This is not a matter of civil disputes to be litigated or negotiated, which has been used as a dilatory tactic for decades while Israel has continued to gobble up Palestinian land. This is a matter of criminal violations to be enforced. It is time for Veterans For Peace to take a clear, unequivocal stand in support of all international laws enacted to ensure peace.
Therefore, be it resolved that Veterans For Peace shall call for:
1) a "one-state solution" in all of historic Palestine where Jews and other religions (including the non-religious) have equal rights, as opposed to the current "two-state" proposal, which would preserve the present apartheid system within Israel and permit Israel to evict indigenous citizens from their own lands, keeping all the best olive groves and orchards, beachfront properties, and other desirable real estate and turning their non-Jewish citizens into more refugees without legal rights, even the right to life should they resist.
2) a national boycott of all Israeli products as well as products of companies such as Caterpillar and Motorola that provide equipment for the occupation, including active support of existing boycott programs (e.g. http://www.bdsmovement.net/)
3) a divestment campaign to impose economic sanctions upon Israel (as was done with South Africa) to coerce it to amend its ways. (Note: economic coercion against the rich and powerful is not the same as coercion by the rich and powerful against the poor and weak, as inflicted by Israel upon the helpless population of Gaza.) Again, see http://www.bdsmovement.net/.
4) an immediate end to all military assistance by the U.S. f or Israel.
5) implementation of the right of return for all UN-registered Palestinian refugees per UN Resolution 194 in 1948, to which Israel agreed as a condition of its 1949 admission to the United Nations, with establishment of a commission to adjudicate property disputes, to be fully funded with freed-up military assistance dollars.
6) cessation of all US diplomatic protection of Israel from the judgments and sanctions of international legislative and judicial bodies.
7) suspension of all foreign aid to Israel contingent upon Israel's full compliance with international law and UN resolutions.
8) reimbursement by Israel to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for the full costs of its 60 years of care for the Palestinian refugees it has illegally prevented from returning.
Signed,
Winston Warfield
VfP, Chapter 9, Boston (Smedley Butler Brigade), past president
U.S. Army (RA18951984)
Hq. Co., 1st Brigade, 5th Inf. Div. (Mech.)
I Corps, Quang Tri Province, Vietnam, 1968-1969
Jack Dresser, Ph.D.
Former Chief Psychologist, Madigan General Hospital, US Army
Veterans for Peace
Co-founder, the Al-Nakba Awareness Project
Gordon Sturrock
founder Squadron13.com, co-founder VeteransAgainstTorture.com
member VeteransForPeace & VVAW
Bill Perry
VFP, DAV, VVAW, VFW, VVA
Delaware Valley Veterans For America, co-founder VeteransAgainstTorture.com
The following documentation is provided in support of this resolution:
A Middle East Union: A Two-Stage Solution To The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, by Jeff Halper
http://www.squadron13.com/WarfieldDresserResolution/Halper-2%20stage%20solution.doc
Forget the two state solution. Israelis and Palestinians must share the land. Equally. by Saree Makdisi
http://www.squadron13.com/WarfieldDresserResolution/LAT%20article.doc
If One State Is Impossible, Why Is Olmert So Afraid Of It? By Jonathan Cook in Nazareth
http://www.squadron13.com/WarfieldDresserResolution/One%20State%20by%20JCook.doc
The One State Declaration
http://www.squadron13.com/WarfieldDresserResolution/One%20State%20Declaration.doc
Democracy: an existential threat? Ali Abunimah and Omar Barghouti
http://www.squadron13.com/WarfieldDresserResolution/One%20state%20solution.doc
Arguments supporting proposed 2009 VFP resolution on Israel/Palestinel, by Jack Dresser, Ph.D
http://www.squadron13.com/WarfieldDresserResolution/Supporting%20Arguments.htm
Al-Nakba-History.com by Jack Dresser, Ph.D.
http://www.al-nakba-history.com/
Equality, Solidarity, Peace - ODSPI.org
wow...great letter. The American media needs to actually do their job. Too many Americans have too little honest info. on this human tradgedy.
Such a well written letter that covers so many Israeli war crimes that all their leaders should be tried in a court of law, just like the US unnecessarily to Sadam Hussein. They use white phosphorous bombs which is AGAINST all conventional war practices and NOT sanctioned at all. It is illegal that they do use it and get away with it. Where is the UN, and the World Council now? Their non action shows me they are in compliance in what Zionist Israel is doing!
Israel over the last decades made, intentionally, the reallization of a viable Palestinian State near impossible. Every human being should have an equal right in Palestine/Israel. That is democracy in the 21st Century and away with racism and apartheid.
Palestine for Arabs and Jews as it once was...repatriation...reparation!
Stop Israels aggression.
Justice and freedom for Palestine, now!
Don't go around the world preaching peace when you're selling weapons & arms to murder children.
Excellent resolution! Glad to see that discourse about 1-state is gaining momentum in the U.S. :)
The killing must stop! Humans are social beings with advanced communication skills. It's time for the Israelis to join the humans and stop being heartless monsters. It's time to speak, but it's also time to listen.
It is absolutely disgusting that America continues to send arms to Israel when they are guilty of breaching human rights, they are slaughtering civilians each time they invade Gaza. This must stop and the world must act!!!!!!
Enough is Enough!
Until when will this act of injustice exist. There is absolutely nothing right with what Israel is doing: illegal phosphorous bombs, destruction of schools, using guns and all sorts of weapons against a nation that only has stones to defend themselves!!! THINK FOR ONCE, imagine what would you be like if you were in their position.....
there should be ban on the weapons.
Why are you helping kill countless Palestinians when they've done nothing to you?it was their homeland and they deserve to live there.you should leave them alone! You yourself shout alot about human rights,where are the human rights for the Palestinians then? they don't even have any warfare weapons to fight with.Is that fair?Is it fair to kill the other person when he's totally helpless?
Without justice there will be no peace. The Palestinians deserve a homeland as much as the Israelis do.
It is long past time America held Israel accountable.
Enough is enough.
We have to look in our hearts; we have to look at the truth and what is really going. We have to look in the eyes of the dying innocent children who want to live in peace who want to go to school and learn, who can grow up and have their own children without fear that their home may be distroyed. Those children should not worry about their fathers not coming home, they should be able to play and learn, have a bright future. They should be able to plan on how to make their country beautiful and how to be productive, Instead, they cry and bury their loved ones.
I will continue to act for the Palestinian people in honor of the children who have lost their lives in this conflict.
we have to stop the injustices of what is happining to the palestinian people, I can understand that israel wants security for its people, what I want to know is who will secure the palestinians and their right to live in peace and harmony, who will protect them from the occupying forces when there homes are bieng demolished for trumped up charges, the check points that is stoping the inhabitants of having access to their own lands and jobs, who will protect their rights from having fresh water while israel is stealing it. who will stop all of this if america continues to support the otrocities that are bieng practiced by israel. let us call for justice for all human bieng. the Palestinians are also humans and deserve the right to live in there own state under self rule, and they deserve to live a life free from attachs, and sanctions against exisiting. they have every right for self determination.
It is not possible for the Zionists to settle in a "two-states solution" because such settlement compels them to accept that they are occupiers. Only way get rid of this problem is a One state with democratic polity.
We need more media attention on this issue.
dobbiamo ignorare le voci che affermano che il mondo non può cambiare. Anzi, dobbiamo insistere e dire: "Yes, we can", sì, possiamo cambiarlo.
