ATFP's Ziad Asali: Israel Needs Peace with Palestine to Avoid Looming Boycotts

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine] 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ziad-j-asali-md/israel-needs-peace-with-p_b_4682405.html

"... Because of their national narrative, religious views, or ideological perspectives, many Israelis view the settlements as perfectly legitimate. What they must recognize, however, is that they are alone in this opinion, globally. And Israel cannot remain deeply connected to the international system and global economy, and especially the West, while continuing to flout basic the international laws governing occupied territories.

The European policy is sound, and an approach I have long supported. Back in 2010, I noted that "while those of us at the American Task Force on Palestine firmly oppose Israel's delegitimization, we also oppose the occupation and support peaceful, nonviolent efforts to end it. We have strongly supported Palestinian efforts to build the institutional, infrastructural, economic and administrative framework of the Palestinian state under occupation, in order to end the occupation. We have also supported nonviolent protest efforts such as popular boycott of settlement goods that call attention to the important and undeniable distinction between Israel itself on the one hand and the occupation and the settlements on the other hand."

The new EU, and now German, policies are fully in line with this formula. The international community must do more to clarify to Israelis that their settlement policies are not acceptable and that the whole world sees a vital distinction between the legitimate state of Israel and the illegitimate and illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinians territories..." Ziad J. Asali, M.D. President, American Task Force on Palestine

"The message from Israel's most senior security and business professionals is clear, rational and certainly correct: however much some Israelis might want to continue the occupation, the future of Israel requires a peace agreement and a state of Palestine."

***

Palestine & The United Nations