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SEATTLE DIVEST FROM ISRAELI MILITARY OCCUPATION
WHY DIVESTMENT?
Both Israelis
and Palestinians deserve to live in peace, independence and security.
If we want peace and justice in Israel/Palestine, we must support both
Israeli and Palestinian claims to statehood and self-determination. We
must also penetrate the veil of misinformation that surrounds this conflict,
misrepresenting it as a religious war, an ancient conflict, or a battle
between two equal sides. It is not an equal battle. One side has power
over the other, and has imposed a military occupation for over 35 years.
We currently have municipal public funds invested in companies that support
that military occupation, and the time has come for that to end.
Since 1967,
over three million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza have lived in
a state of apartheid under Israeli military occupation. Under occupation,
Palestinians have no right to vote, no freedom of speech or assembly or
movement. They can be arrested and imprisoned indefinitely without charge
or trial. They are routinely subject to torture in prison. Israeli soldiers
and civilians attack and murder them with relative impunity. According
to the US State Department's Country Reports, the Israeli army targets
civilians even when soldiers are not in imminent danger. Amnesty International
is concerned that the main aim of the Israeli army's conduct "is
to collectively punish all Palestinians," stressing that the Israeli
army has taken actions which amount to war crimes.
No peace
talks have offered Palestinians independence. No peace talks have stopped
Israel from continuing to build settlements for Israeli citizens inside
the Occupied Territories. Several Israeli generals have agreed that these
settlements serve no purpose for the defense or security of Israel. As
former President Jimmy Carter has observed, this ongoing process of colonizing
occupied land for an Israeli population is an egregious and destabilizing
obstacle to peace in the region. Our political and financial support of
these activities only makes more violence inevitable.
The military
occupation of the West Bank and Gaza is illegal under the UN Charter and
4th Geneva Convention, which not only forbid the acquisition of land by
force, but also forbid the occupying power from moving its own population
into occupied territories. As parties to the Geneva Convention, both the
United States and Israel are compelled to "respect and ensure respect
for" the Convention. The US therefore has an affirmative duty under
international law to see that the illegal occupation ends. Under domestic
law also, the US should not be supporting the Israeli occupation. Both
the US Foreign Assistance Act and Arms Export Control Act forbid selling
weapons or giving financial support to countries that engage in consistent
patterns of gross violations of human rights.
The Israeli
military occupation, which denies human rights based on ethnicity, is
a moral outrage as well. We would not support torture if it occurred in
front of us, and conscience demands that we not support it anywhere. We
would not support apartheid in South Africa or in the Jim Crow South of
our own country, and conscience demands that we not support it when it
happens in Israel/Palestine.
Through
its Retirement Pension Funds for city employees, the City of Seattle invests
in several corporations that sell military equipment to the Israeli army
for use in the Occupied Territories. These companies sell equipment used
to brutalize and kill people. Our divestment campaign focuses on seven
such companies:
Caterpillar sells armored bulldozers which
are used to demolish homes and uproot olive trees.
United
Technologies makes Blackhawk helicopters which attack Palestinian buildings
and civilians.
General
Dynamics makes the 20mm guns for F16 jets.
Boeing
sells AH64 Apache Helicopters which kill Palestinian civilians.
General
Electric makes engines for the Apache Helicopters.
Northrop
Grumman makes radars and weapons systems.
Oshkosh
Truck Corporation makes tactical military trucks.
We are not
calling for a boycott of all Israeli companies, or of all companies that
do business with Israel. Our demand is specific: withdraw financial support
from companies that sell equipment to Israel's military occupation, and
send a clear signal that Seattle does not support illegal or immoral actions,
at home or abroad.
The City
of Seattle's Retirement Pension Fund has only one mandate for investment:
fiduciary responsibility. We support that mandate and believe that a fiduciary
duty includes ensuring that public funds do not support racism, torture
or apartheid. The Israeli Occupation is both illegal and immoral, and
we call on the City of Seattle not to use public funds to support acts
that shock the conscience.
Divestment
from Israeli military occupation is not only a moral imperative. It is an opportunity.
It is one of many ways we must demand a future built on justice and peace,
not only for the peoples of the Middle East but for ourselves as well.
SEATTLE DIVEST FROM ISRAELI MILITARY OCCUPATION
for more information contact Palestine Solidarity Committee
(206) 633-1086
palestinejustice@aol.com
WAYS TO JOIN the Seattle Divest from Israeli Military Occupation Campaign
The Israeli
military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza is not a narrow political
issue.
It is a legal and moral outrage which our public funds are supporting.
Our goal:
to approach the City of Seattle with a broad and united community of concern,
demanding that our public funds be spent in support of human rights and
wellbeing, not in support of apartheid and dictatorship.
Your group
can support the campaign to divest from Israeli apartheid by:
Phase
I
endorsing
the campaign so your name is used in campaign literature
appointing
a divestment liaison & sending the liaison to our strategy meetings
passing
a resolution supporting divestment
also by:
donating
money
getting
other groups and individuals involved
hosting
informational meetings about Palestine and divestment
Phase II
joining
us in our meetings with public officials
joining
a letter-writing campaign to City Council and the Mayor
sending
pre-printed postcards to City Council and the Mayor
placing
ads in the papers
phoning
City Council and the Mayor and asking them to divest
demanding
divestment at Town Halls, on radio shows, and at City Council meetings
Ask the
City of Seattle to divest from these corporations:
GENERAL ELECTRIC
Aircraft Engines have had presence in Israel since 1968. GE Aircraft Engines
supports the Israeli Air Force propulsion systems on a long list of aircraft
including: F-16 Falcon Fighters, F-4 Phantom fighters, Israel made Kfir,
CH-53 heavy lift helicopter, AH-64 Apache attack helicopter, UH-60 Black
Hawk utility helicopter and the Sahar 5 gunboat. General Electric- parts
for HELLFIRE II laser missiles, T-700 and 701C jet engines, and propulsion
systems for attack helicopters used in the occupied territories.
UNITED
TECHNOLOGIES
Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, a subsidiary of United Technologies Corporation,
sells Israel U.S. armaments used to destroy Palestinian cities and perform
political assassinations of Palestinian civilians from the sky. Sold 15
Blackhawk helicopters to Israel in 1997, has contracts for 25 helicopters
in 2002. Major arms contractor with Israel. Was charged in 1997 of diverting
US aid to Israel into a slush fund for an Israeli Air Force officer. "Our
company's relationship of more than 40 years with Israel is a source of
pride," said Sikorsky President Dean Borgman in a February 1, 2001
press release while announcing his firm was awarded a $211.8 million contract
with the Israeli Air Force.
BOEING
Missile systems, F-15 software, Longbow Fire Control radar, Apache Helicopters,
Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) a guided air-to-surface weapon Boeing's
Apache Longbow helicopter is the U.S. Army's most advanced attack helicopter.
The Apaches are equipped with the Hellfire missile system, produced by
Lockheed Martin Missiles & Fire Control in Orlando, Fla. One of these
missiles killed local Palestinian leader Hussein Abayat along with two
women standing nearby, in the second of half of October 2000.
CATERPILLAR
Armored D9 bulldozers used for destroying Palestinian homes in Jenin and
elsewhere In Jenin at least 140 buildings were completely leveled -- many
of them multi-family dwellings --while over 200 others were severely damaged,
leaving an estimated 4,000 people, more than a quarter of the camp's population,
homeless. During one of Israel's home demolition campaignsÑmorbidly
entitled "Operation Enjoyable Song"Ñmore than 32 shelters,
housing some 400 people, were demolished April 11, 2001.
GENERAL
DYNAMICS
Approximately one thousand M60A3 Main Battle Tanks, originally manufactured
by General Dynamics Land Systems, were supplied to Israel. General Dynamics
Armament Systems, a wholly owned subsidiary of General Dynamics (NYSE:
GD), has been awarded contract from the U.S. Army for the production of
44 Reactive Armor vehicle sets under a licensing agreement with Rafael
Armament Development Authority of Haifa. Sells the F16 Fighting Falcon
Jets to Israel. F16 is capable of Mach 2+, can be armed with three-barrel
cannon with 515 rounds; up to 9,276 kilograms (20,450 pounds) of ordinance
including: nuclear weapons, ASMs, AAMs, anti-radar missiles, anti-ship
missiles, free-fall or guided bombs, cluster bombs, dispenser weapons,
rocket launchers, napalm tanks, drop tanks and ECM pods, carried on nine
external hardpoints.
NORTHROP
GRUMMAN
has launched a bid to acquire TRW Systems in a hostile takeover that could
cost $6 billion. TRW is the prime contractor of the Tactical High Energy
Laser in a joint U.S. project with Israel. Northop is the manufacturer
of the Global Hawk unmanned air vehicle, which is being examined by Israel
in a joint venture for its missile defense efforts. Northrop makes warships
for Israel such the SA'AR 5 Multi-Mission Corvette loaded with Boeing
Harpoon surface to air missiles with a warhead of 227 KG and the BARAK
anti-air missile system.
OSHKOSH
TRUCK CORPORATION
Supplies Mobility Tactical Trucks to Israeli Military.
SEATTLE DIVEST FROM ISRAELI MILITARY OCCUPATION
for more information contact Palestine Solidarity Committee
(206) 633-1086
palestinejustice@aol.com
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