Jun 30 2016
Clinton’s not-so-Democratic Party when it comes to Israel
By Daoud Kuttab
As first Lady, Hillary Clinton had the political courage to support Palestinian statehood and even have her picture taken as she kissed Suha Arafat on the cheek at the Christmas lights ceremony in Bethlehem.
As a diplomat in her own right, Secretary Clinton often repeated the Obama Administration’s opposition to occupation and to the continued Israeli building of settlements.
But as the presumptive nominee for the US Democratic Party, Clinton’s loyal delegates are refusing to recognise “reality” as Professor Cornel West, the Bernie Sanders delegate to the drafting committee, so forcefully articulated.
Recognising that Palestine is under occupation is not such a big deal. Every single country in the world, and even half of Israel have already done so. The UN and all its bodies, from the Security Council to the General Assembly and everything in between, say that Palestinian territories captured in an Israeli initiated war in 1967 are occupied territories.
The International Criminal Court deliberating on the Israeli-built wall deep in Palestinian territory, said that the areas are occupied and that the Geneva IV conventions of 1949 apply to these territories.