Boycott for Peace: discrimination

Showing posts with label discrimination. Show all posts

Monday, February 2, 2015

Travel Discrimination

"The Government of Israel does not currently permit U.S. citizens with Palestinian nationality (or even, in some cases, the claim to it) to enter Israel via Ben Gurion International Airport. Many travelers have been sent back to the U.S. upon arrival. Others have been allowed to enter Israel but told they cannot depart Israel via Ben Gurion without special permission, which is rarely granted. Some families have been separated as a result, and other travelers have forfeited expensive airline tickets."

"Access to Jerusalem and the West Bank is controlled

by the Government of Israel."

From Wikimedia Commons.

" . . . all persons applying for entry to Israel and the West Bank are subject to security and police record checks by the Government of Israel and may be denied entry or exit without explanation. U.S. citizen visitors have been subjected to prolonged questioning and thorough searches by Israeli authorities upon entry or departure. Those whom Israeli authorities suspect of being of Arab, Middle Eastern, or Muslim origin; those who have been involved in missionary work or activism; and those who ask that Israeli stamps not be entered into their passports may face additional, often time-consuming, and probing questioning by immigration and border authorities, or may even be denied entry into Israel or the West Bank."

"U.S. passport holders who do not hold Israeli or Palestinian passports or Palestinian identity card numbers are generally permitted to enter Israel via Ben Gurion International Airport, subject to the discretion of the Government of Israel."

From Wikimedia Commons.

"U.S. citizens with Palestinian passports must use the Allenby Bridge-King Hussein border crossing to enter or exit the West Bank. They are not permitted to transit via Ben Gurion International Airport."

"In general, Jerusalem identity card holders are permitted to enter and exit via Ben Gurion International Airport and the Allenby-King Hussein border crossing. They are not allowed to use the Jordan River-Sheikh Hussein or Rabin-Arava border crossings unless they obtain a Jordanian visa in advance."

"American citizens have found themselves unable to exit Gaza once they entered. Exiting Gaza via the Erez crossing into Israel, which is tightly restricted by the Government of Israel, is nearly impossible. Exit through the Rafah border crossing into Egypt is unpredictable and can involve significant expense."

Excerpted from: "Entering and Exiting Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza."from the Consulate General of the United States. Accessed on 12.26.14

" . . . American authorities remain concerned with the unequal treatment that Palestinian Americans and other Americans of Middle Eastern origin experience at Israel’s border and checkpoints . . . "

From: The Times of Israel

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Israel, of course, engages in other discriminatory practices. Please see our post on 'Freedom of Religion,' including the comments, to find more documentation of discrimination:
http://boycott4peace.blogspot.com/2014/11/freedom-of-religion.html

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Friday, December 19, 2014

Roots of Israel-Palestine Conflict

“For in Palestine we do not propose even to go through the form of consulting the wishes of the present inhabitants of the country…The four great powers are committed to Zionism, and Zionism, be it right or wrong, good or bad, is rooted in age-long traditions, in present needs, in future hopes, of far profounder import than the desires and prejudices of 700,000 Arabs who now inhabit that ancient land.”

From Balfour’s famous speech of 1919, quoted in the article titled, 'Christians and Zion: British Stirrings,' which traces the roots of British Christian Zionism back to the 6th century AD. From there it follows up this development to modern times: http://www.christianzionism.org/Article/Wagner06.asp

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"The roots of the Israel-Palestine conflict date back to 1917, when the British government, in the now-infamous Balfour Declaration, called for "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people."

"Israel occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank during the 1967 Middle East War. It later annexed the holy city in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the self-proclaimed Zionist state – a move never recognized by the international community."

From the article titled, 'Israel detains eight Palestinians in East Jerusalem for Facebook posts,' which
also documents on-going unequal enforcement of standards and laws which discriminate
against Palestinians in Israel and the occupied territories:

http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/israel-detains-eight-palestinians-east-jerusalem-facebook-posts

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Friday, November 21, 2014

Freedom of Religion

"The Christian--be he Protestant or Catholic--the infidel, the Mohammedan, the Jew, the Deist, has not only all his rights as a citizen, but may have his own form of worship, without possibility of interference from any policeman or magistrate, provided he do not interrupt, in so doing, the peace and tranquility of the surrounding neighborhood."

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Robert Baird (speaking of US settler communities in the1840's) quoted in 'Religious Pluralism in America,' by William R. Hutchinson.

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Here in the US we have long valued, not only freedom of religion, but also the separation of church and state.

In 1791 the First Amendment of the US Constitution was passed guaranteeing the freedom of religion. In 1940 freedom of religion was also affirmed by all our state governments.
http://billofrightsinstitute.org/resources/educator-resources/americapedia/americapedia-bill-of-rights/first-amendment/free-exercise-clause/

And while our important ideal of the separation of church and state may not be so clearly spelled out in the Constitution, it is an ideal that we have long held as sacred as freedom of religion. Together these ideals form the underpinnings of American democracy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separation_of_church_and_state_in_the_United_States

While we in the US may have on going debates on the proper extent of the separation between church and state, we are clear that there must be freedom of religion and a separation of church and state. However, the same can not be said for a country that we support with 4 billion in military aid each year, and with the power of our veto at the UN.

Israel has very clear discriminatory laws, that favor people who are Jewish by heredity or conversion. Conversion, however is a tricky and arbitrary businesses. Not everyone who wants to convert is allowed to.

First of all, take a look at this list of Israeli discriminatory laws:
http://www.onepalestine.org/resources/Israeli_Apartheid_Laws.html
If you are inclined to read something a little more in depth and referenced, here it is:
http://www.itisapartheid.org/laws.html
Here is a great little video that shows how the discriminatory laws play out in East Jerusalem:
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=660366467405165&set=vb.594845157290630&type=2&theater

And then there is the whole arbitrary business of conversion, discussed here from a Jewish perspective: http://forward.com/articles/195883/israeli-jews-who-arent-jewish-in-eyes-of-rabbis-fa/?p=all So we see, Israeli laws discriminate against those who are not legally Jewish under Israeli law. But even if you have been Jewish all your life, Israel is not necessarily going to accept you as a Jew and allow you to reap the benefits of their discriminatory laws. If you are Palestinian, however, the outcome is much worse.

As Americans, we must ask ourselves, according to our own beliefs and laws, now that we know what is really going on, how can we possibly continue to support Israel? How can we continue to support a country that does not believe in religious freedom nor in the separation of church and state?