OneVoice Activists Warn Against Report Promoting Settlement Expansion

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• Publié par: the-one-voice-movement
• Nombre de lectures: 17
• Langue: English

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OneVoice Activists Warn Against Report

Promoting Settlement Expansion

PR Newswire

NEW YORK, July 11, 2012

NEW YORK

,

July 11, 2012

/PRNewswire/ -- Dozens of OneVoice activists

assembled outside the Defense Ministry headquarters in

Tel Aviv

's Kiriya

Complex on Tuesday to protest against an Israeli government-appointed

committee's report, which recommended legalizing the majority of West Bank

outposts.

Wearing blindfolds, OneVoice Israeli activists warned against government

blindness toward the dangers inherent in adopting the report. They held up

banners that read, "Enough with the blindness; enough with the freeze in

negotiations," and urged Defense Minister Ehud Barak to open his eyes.

"Adopting the Levy report is akin to shutting one's eyes," said Tal Harris,

executive director of OneVoice Israel. "We stand blindfolded in front of Defense

Minister Barak's office to scorn the government's cowardly conduct."

The committee of three jurists, led by retired Supreme Court judge Edmond

Levy, argued the

West Bank

was not under Israeli military occupation given that

"no other legal entity has ever had its sovereignty over the area cemented

under international law." They proposed legalizing unauthorized outposts on

Palestinian land and regulating settlement construction to enable "natural

growth."

"Excuses, framed in legal terms, that promote settlement expansion and ignore

the 1967 lines, do not excuse inaction toward ending the conflict," said Harris.

"Legal or not, the conflict is a risk to our state and invites the next round of

bloodshed."

The international community considers the territories that

Israel

annexed

during the 1967 Six-Day War to be under occupation, and accordingly views all

settlements built on them as illegal.

Responding to the report, U.S. State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell

said, "We do not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity

and we oppose any effort to legalize settlement outposts."

Passersby showed support for the actions OneVoice youth activists were taking,

and many of them signed their petition to stop settlement activity in the

West

Bank

and restart stalled negotiations toward the two-state solution.

Since June, OneVoice's Israeli activists have been mobilizing in a different major

city each week by wearing heavy winter coats symbolizing the need to freeze

the settlement policy and unfreeze peace talks. They've held protests outside

the Israeli Presidential Conference in Jerusalem and annual education

conference in Tel Aviv, grabbing local and national news headlines.

OneVoice is an international grassroots movement that aims to amplify the

voice of Israeli and Palestinian moderates, empowering them to demand a two-

state solution. The movement educates and trains Israeli and Palestinian youth

in leadership skills, non-violent activism, and democratic principles. To support

and contribute to OneVoice, join us at www.onevoicemovement.org.