Hawkins Calls for UN Peacekeepers to Protect Palestinians in Gaza,
Renews Call for US Pressure on Israel to End Occupation of Palestinian
Territories
Green Party of New York State
www.gpnys.org
Hawkins for US Senate
www.HawkinsForSenate.org
November 06, 2006
Released November 4, 2006
Howie Hawkins Calls for UN Peacekeepers to Protect Palestinians in Gaza from
Israeli Military Assaults Renews Call for US Pressure on Israel to End Its Occupation of Palestinian
Territories
Howie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate for US Senate from New York, faulted
his Democratic-Working Family Party opponent for turning a blind eye to the
plight of the Palestinians during his six years in office. Hawkins said that an
international peacekeeping force should be deployed to end the Israeli
military occupation of Palestinian territories and its latest military attacks in
the Gaza strip.
Several dozen Palestinians have been killed in the last military action.
Israeli troops recently opened fire on women in Beit Hanoun who went to a mosque
that is under siege.
"The US government and politicians like Hillary Clinton bear responsibility
for the killings and sufferings of the Palestinian people, both in the most
recent attacks of the Israeli government in Gaza and for the decades of the
illegal occupation of these lands. The occupied territories have become little more
than a prison camp for Palestinian civilians. The US has supported Israel
while it systematically deprived residents in Gaza of access to their means of
survival, including food, water, and electricity. It is the US government who
provide the economic and military aid and the political support that enable
these atrocious conditions to occur," noted Hawkins.
"How many more innocent civilians must be killed with American tax dollars
before the Democrats and Republicans say enough is enough?" asked Hawkins.
Hawkins noted that even the Bush administration has refrained from military
assaults in the days before national elections in over to limit political damage at
the polls. Since the Israeli military operations invariably receive unconditional support from the two major American parties and the media, Israeli feels
comfortable launching a major military attack in the closing days of the
American national elections.
The United States has been the principal country blocking implementation of
UN Security Council Resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973), which require Israel
to withdraw from the occupied territories. Israel had been the largest
recipient of U.S. foreign assistance for almost 30 years, and since 1985 has
received about $3 billion in military and economic aid each year. Approximately 17%
of all U.S. foreign aid is earmarked for Israel. American military financing
comprises 20% of Israel's defense budget.
"Ultimately, peace can only be achieved through negotiations between the
Israeli and Palestinian leaderships. But peace cannot come under the oppression of
a military occupation. The United States must unequivocally state that Israel
cannot expect continued US military and economic aid so long as Israel's
military occupation of the Palestinian territories continues. Palestinian people
are being deprived of the most elementary human rights, and are subjected to a
never-ending process whose intended outcome appears to be their complete
dispossession and expulsion from their homeland," noted Hawkins.
"Clinton has no sympathy or understanding for the suffering of Palestinian
and Lebanese civilians in her unconditional support for Israel's destruction of
their economic infrastructure. She speaks as if Israeli seizures of land,
one-third of the Palestinian parliament, and some 10,000 Palestinians, its extra
judicial imprisonment, torture, and execution of Palestinians, and its repeated
military assaults in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories over the years
had never happened. Such willful ignorance does not serve the cause of peace,"
stated Hawkins.
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PEACE SLATE CANDIDATE WEBSITES
Malachy McCourt for Governor
http://votemalachymccourt.org/
Alison Duncan for Lieutenant Governor
http://www.alisonduncan.org/
Rachel Treichler for Attorney General
http://www.voterachel.org/
Julia Willebrand for Comptroller
http://gpnys.org/
Howie Hawkins for US Senate from New York
http://www.hawkinsforsenate.org/