ABQJOURNAL OPINION/GUEST_COLUMNS: Pro-Palestinian Group Is Not Promoting Peace

ABQJOURNAL OPINION/GUEST_COLUMNS: Pro-Palestinian Group Is Not Promoting Peace

Rich Forer Today's Albuquerque Journal newspaper has an op-ed that is dishonest in its portrayal of human rights groups and the BDS Movement's criticism of the Israeli occupation. The link to this op-ed is included. And here is my reply to the op-ed. Please pass it on.
Sam Sokolove and Sara Koplik’s article, “Pro-Palestinian Group... Is Not Promoting Peace,” which is a response to an article co-written by me a day earlier, distorts the reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict. Misrepresenting the BDS movement as “utterly disinterested in peace” and guilty of “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination,” Sokolove and Koplik themselves manifest denial in its most transparent incarnation. One need only focus on the statements of Israel’s leaders and military strategists to comprehend that it is Israel that has always sabotaged prospects for peace; that it is Israel that has always actively sought the delegitimization of the Palestinian people (for example, Prime Minister Golda Meir’s statement that “there are no Palestinian people”), all as part of Zionism’s nightmarish goal of a Greater Israel.
Just as defenders of Israel’s illegal occupation slander individuals and human rights organizations for their heartfelt concern for the rights of all people – including but not exclusively Israelis – so too does Israel’s daily contempt for International Humanitarian Law, UN Resolutions and Geneva Conventions expose Israeli deceit and its decades long disinformation project intent on the character assassination of an indigenous people.
I welcome dialogue with Sokolove and Koplik, both of whom I’ve met and liked, but dialogue must be based on a common reality, such as the documented history of the Israel-Palestine conflict, as well as the recognition that the purpose of international law is to put an end to discrimination, unequal rights and conflict.
I urge Sam and Sara and all who are interested to come to Ali Abunimah’s talk at UNM this Sunday at 7pm, Ballroom B in the Student Union Building
Richard Forer'

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