WASHINGTON, D.C. (Press Release)–The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) is urging the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to accede to international and U.S. pressure, for a continuation of the 10-month freeze on Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria which the Netanyahu government imposed in November 2009.
The 10-month freeze, which is due to end on September 26, was adopted by the Israeli government after Prime Minister Netanyahu pleaded with the Knesset, the Cabinet and the Israeli people, including the Jews living in Judea and Samaria, to accept it as an exceptional, temporary measure, after which construction would immediately resume. The ZOA is urging the Netanyahu government not to renege on the commitment it made to resume building after ten months at the time of the implementation of the construction freeze.
If Israel were to extend the agreed upon length of the freeze, the message will be sent that, by applying pressure, Israel can be made to increase and expand any concession it has already made.
Also, the freeze has produced no pro-peace actions from the Palestinians. They haven’t arrested terrorists, outlawed terrorist groups and ended the incitement to hatred and murder against Jews that suffuses the PA-controlled media, mosques, schools and youth camps. Worse, the PA has continued to make violent, extreme statements, glorify terrorists and enhance the culture of jihadist and nationalist violence, without whose ending no genuine peace is possible. They have even refused direct negotiations until now.
The PA not only has not fulfilled its commitments, it glorifies terrorists and violence. Only in the past week, Mahmoud Abbas praised Amin Al-Hindi, one of the senior planners of 1972 Munich Olympics terrorist operation, Abbas, PA prime minister Salam Fayyad and other high PA officials attended al-Hindi’s military-style funeral, and the PA official newspaper described him as “one of the stars who sparkled … at the sports stadium in Munich.” In July, Mahmoud Abbas even told Arab journalists in Jordan that, “’If you [the Arab states] want war, and if all of you will fight Israel, we are in favor.”
Moreover, it is absurd extending the freeze in order to facilitate negotiations with a non-peaceful interlocutor – the PA – when the PA does not even control the people and territory in question. At present, Gaza, which comprises 40% of Palestinian Arabs, is under the rule of Hamas terrorists, with their genocidal program, enunciated in their Charter, of destroying Israel and murdering Jews. Cross-border raids and rocket assaults upon Israel from Gaza would continue, regardless of any agreement that might be signed. Thus, not only is there a lack of peace and security in Gaza, but there is not even a single Palestinian governing authority or entity with which to negotiate, even if the PA under Mahmoud Abbas and Salam Fayyad were angels. Even if Abbas and Fayyad did all that was required of them and even if they had the requisite good faith, little would come of it.
The construction freeze not only prevents Jewish communities from growing and flourishing within already defined boundaries, as they have every right to do. It also involves extraordinary hardship: telling Israeli families that they may not add a room to their house or a floor to an apartment, or build schools in their communities, means that people must pick up and leave their homes and that children have to move from their communities and families to seek employment and housing elsewhere. It has also created a situation in which people have taken out mortgages on land purchases which they are liable to repay but who have been unable to build on their land.
There is no justification for a racist policy of discrimination that imposes these harsh conditions on any group, in this case, on Jews only. What would Western governments say if Israel imposed such conditions on Arabs only?
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Preceding provided by Zionist Organization of America