- The land is not disputed, it is illegally occupied according to the Geneva Conventions and UN Security Council Resolution 242.  This is recognized by all countries in the world including the United States.

- These are not neighbourhoods.  What Israel is doing is expanding illegal settlements built on occupied land in contravention of UN Resolution 242.

 -The Palestinians claim the land because they have full rights to it under international law.  Your article failed to mention this.  You should be referring to Palestinian rights under international law, not so called Palestinian “claims”.

Your report of … date…. was inaccurate.  You refer to  Jewish neighbourhoods/disputed land / land claimed by the Palestinians for a future state. 

The Geneva Conventions forbid the acquisition of territory by force and the transfer of a country’s own civilian population into the territory it occupies(1).

In 2004, the International Court of Justice agreed unanimously that all of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem were “occupied Palestinian territory.” When the world’s highest court reaches a unanimous decision, it’s no longer “in dispute.”

Successive Israeli governments have made it clear that they do not want to see the creation of a viable Palestinian state. These "housing units" are one of the means that Israel is using to create “facts on the ground” to annex land in the hopes of preventing the creation of a viable Palestinian state. 

This video, from the Palestine Center, shows exactly what’s happening in East Jerusalem…

It does not matter who was there first.  It does not matter if there never was a country called Palestine.  International Law recognizes the State of Israel within its 1967 boundaries, and the rest as “occupied Palestinian territory.” The people who live there today must respect each others' rights according to International Law.  It is the only way to peace.

Jews, Christians and Muslims have lived in Palestine for centuries.  In fact, the people of all three religious groups are related and lived in relative peace for generations before the arrival of the European Zionists.

-  We do criticize other nations including our own.

- Every country has a right to defend itself but it also has the duty to play fair and respect the rights of its neighbours. 

-  Israel would not need to “defend itself” if it ended the occupation and all the oppressive policies.  Don’t put the chicken before the egg: Israeli oppression must end before Israel can claim the right to defend itself.

- We are not holding Israel to a higher standard than it claims for itself.  Many other countries are also human rights abusers but they are not claiming to be democratic, they are not lobbying our MPs, they do not have major campaings to stifle debate and suppress information.

The correct legal term under International Law is “belligerent occupation.”

According to the International Court of Justice, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem are all under “belligerent occupation” by Israel

Resistance is a natural – and legal – response to occupation.  The Geneva Conventions stipulate that a people under occupation has the right to resist by any means at their disposal.

The Palestinians have sought redress to their grievances through peaceful means since the creation of the state of Israel by numerous appeals to the United Nations.  Israel is in violation of over 65 UN Resolutions.  

More recently they appealed to the International Court of Justice for a ruling on the wall that Israel is building on Palestinian land.  The court deemed the wall illegal but Israel has not only refused to dismantle it but continues to build it.

The Palestinians recognized Israel’s right to exist within the 1967 borders in 1988 and again at the time of the Oslo Accords in 1993.  The PLO supported the 2002 Saudi Peace Plan which was resurrected in 2007 offered  recognition of  Israel in exchange for ending the occupation and withdrawing to the 1967 border.

Since 2004, Hamas leaders have repeatedly and consistently stated that they would accept a peace based on an Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 borders (i.e. the Green Line.)

Israel does not recognize the right of Palestinians to have a state of their own.  In its party platform documents of 1996, 1999 and 2006, the Likud Party flatly rejects the establishment of a Palestinian Arab state west of the Jordan river. “The Palestinians can run their lives freely in the framework of self-rule, but not as an independent and sovereign state. Thus, for example, in matters of foreign affairs, security, immigration and ecology, their activity shall be limited in accordance with imperatives of Israel's existence, security and national needs." 

Other political parties in Israel even advocate the expulsion of Palestinians from Israel and the occupied territories.

When Israel stops its criminal behavior the criticism will stop.

-    No one is seeking the destruction of Israel.  It is not anti-Semitic to criticize the policies of the state of Israel.

-    Accusations of anti-Semitism have become meaningless.  Jimmy Carter, Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu among many others have been accused of being anti-Semitic for their criticism of Israel.        

Israel delegitimizes itself by its breaches of International Law and the Geneva Conventions. 

-   Israel is flaunting UN resolutions calling for it to pull out of the occupied territories

-    Israel is laying siege to Gaza and not allowing the Palestinians essential food and medical supplies or materials to rebuild their shattered land.

-    Israel has one set of laws for Israeli Jews and other laws for non-Jewish people. (See also Details/Facts re Apartheid below).

-    It is not our goal to be inflammatory.  We are just stating the facts.  It is the facts that are inflammatory.

-       We don’t seek to destroy or “dismantle Israel” , but to dismantle its apartheid practices.

-     Israel will still exist after apartheid ends, just as South Africa still exists.

-     Israelis do not use the word "apartheid" -- they have their own word, "hafrada," But both words mean the same thing: “separation.” And regimes of separation are a crime.  Many Israelis favour a policy of “hafrada”.

-    The word apartheid is written in lower-case. The applicable UN Convention calls it “the crime of apartheid.”

-     Apartheid is not a one-time event, which began and ended in South Africa.

-    Jewish-only roads and neighbourhoods;

-     Two different sets of laws (military law for Palestinians, Israeli civil law for Jewish colonists);

-     Palestinians require permits to travel between different   areas even within Palestinian territory

-    Laws drafted to apply only to Palestinians (eg. Absentee Property Law), or discriminate against non-Jews by using the term “a person to whom the Law of Return applies.”

-    Palestinian citizens of Israel, who lived under military rule until 1966,  have Israeli passports and citizenship yet they must carry identity cards identifying them as "Arab".

-    Palestinian citizens of Israel are barred from public service jobs.  While they are permitted to vote, israel's laws prohibit them from organizing politically to demand that the charatec of the "Jewish state" be modified to include them too.

Quotes from famous South Africans

"I've been very deeply distressed in my visit to the Holy Land; it reminded me so much of what happened to us black people in South Africa. I have seen the humiliation of the Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks, suffering like us when young white police officers prevented us from moving about."

   Archbishop Desmond Tutu

”…Israel came to resemble more and more apartheid South Africa at its zenith - even surpassing its brutality, house demolitions, removal of communities, targeted assassinations, massacres, imprisonment and torture of its opponents, collective punishment and the aggression against neighbouring states.” 

   Former South African Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils from a speech at Israel Apartheid Week 2009