JAI: An Eye on Palestine – April 29, 2016
The YMCA-YWCA Joint Advocacy Initiative issues this bi-weekly newsletter to keep you updated on the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories related to the Israeli occupation.
US to grant Israel largest military aid package in history
The US is planning to provide Israel with the largest military aid package in the history of the two countries, the Times of Israel reported on Monday citing a White House official.
A large majority of US senators have called to increase foreign aid to Israel.
“We are preparing to sign a memorandum of understanding with Israel to provide the largest single package of aid to any country in the history of the United States,” a White House official told Reuters.
As many as 83 out of 100 US Senators signed a letter calling on President Barack Obama to increase foreign aid to Israel and to immediately sign an agreement on a new defense package. Read more
Palestinians call for boycott of genocide conference in Jerusalem
The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel has called for a boycott of this year’s conference of the International Network of Genocide Scholars (INoGS) in Jerusalem.
PACBI says that INoGS should not be holding its meeting on stolen Palestinian land in partnership with Israeli academic institutions that are complicit in Israel’s military occupation.
The title of this year’s conference is, ironically, “Intersections: Holocaust Scholarship, Genocide Research and Histories of Mass Violence.” Read more
Jerusalem churches: Don’t veto Palestine resolution
Leaders of 24 US and Palestinian churches gathered in Atlanta this week for a two-day summit at the Carter Center to chart a path forward for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Separately, the Holy Land church leaders wrote to Obama urging him not to use his veto if the UN Security Council takes up a two-state resolution later this year against Israel’s wishes.
“As Holy Land church leaders, we approach you, Mr. President, to stress to you the gravity of the situation in the region. The hopes and aspirations of many of the faithful in the Holy Land for a two-state solution on the basis of the 1967 borders are quickly fading,” the patriarchs and heads of local churches in Jerusalem wrote in an April 20 letter obtained by Al-Monitor. “We plead to you, during the remainder of your term, to invest in a just peace and to refrain from exercising the US veto rights in the United Nations Security Council in order to deliver new hopes for a just peace in the region and an end to extremism, terrorism, death and destruction in the entire Middle East.”. Read more