JVP On PM Netanyahu’s UNGA Speech 2016

Jewish Voice for Peace offers the following quote for publication regarding today’s meeting between U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Rebecca Vilkomerson, Executive Director, Jewish Voice for Peace:

“The tired, repetitive speeches at the United Nations General Assembly are a reminder that current policies towards Israel/Palestine are simply enforcing the unjust status quo. This status quo won’t change until the United States stops protecting Israel from deserved censure for its actions and begins to put real pressure on it to stop its violations of international law.

Netanyahu’s picture of Israel as a beacon of democracy and equality blatantly elides the fact that 4.5 million Palestinians live under Israeli military control without voting rights and that Palestinians and other minorities in Israel face systematic discrimination.

Contrary to Netanyahu’s assertions, criticism of Israel is growing among people of conscience around the world and in the U.S. who recognize its policies of perpetual occupation, home demolitions, checkpoints, restrictions on movement, extrajudicial killings, and systematic discrimination for what they are: collective punishment.

All people in the region deserve to live in safety with dignity and freedom. Any progress towards a just peace in the region will require Israel to move away from an approach to its own security that necessitates the military occupation and collective punishment of another people.”

Rebecca Vilkomerson and other JVP representatives are available for interviews. Please contact: Naomi Dann | media@jvp.org | 845-377-5745.