SoVT 4 Palestine

Apartheid is the segregation and separation of people based on race, and was the legal system of racial separation in South Africa from 1948 to 1994. Using two international rules—1973 Convention and the Rome Statute—human rights experts defined three characteristics of apartheid:

1. The state has established an institutionalized regime of systematic racial oppression and discrimination.
2. There is an intent to maintain the domination of one racial group over another.
3. A series of inhumane acts were committed as an integral part of this regime.

Short answer— yes. There are a range of privileges given to Israelis, and denied to Palestinians, that illuminate the imbalance of rights of the two peoples.

• There are over 500 Israeli controlled checkpoints in Palestine, which have a disruptive impact on the daily life of Palestinians traveling between Palestinian localities.
• Palestinian vehicles have different license plates, and are forbidden from driving on certain roads, often direct throughways, forcing West Bank Palestinians to use long and winding routes instead.
• Israeli settlers in the West Bank are tried under civilian law, while Palestinians are tried under military law as a means to bypass human rights.
• The Knesset (parliament) passed a law in 2018 declaring Israel is a “nation state of the Jewish people”.

This conclusion is supported by a swath of internationally respected authorities on the topic:

• Human Rights Watch, April 2021
• Amnesty International, February 2022
• International Court of Justice, July 2024

In 2024 alone, the U.S. government sent Israel at least $17.9 billion in military funding to mass murder the Palestinian people. This comes out to $953,562 and $142,353 for Brattleboro and Newfane taxpayers, respectively.

As we currently struggle through the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, global public health should be a significant concern to all. In the last year we have seen Gaza experience its first polio outbreak in 25 years, and a surge in antimicrobial resistant pathogens.

The amount of CO₂ released by the war on Gaza is intentionally unclear, as the Paris Agreement leaves reporting military emissions a voluntary choice. In just the first two months of the genocide, US shipments of weapons to Israel put out 133,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere – more than the entire island of Grenada in 2023.

There remains the question of humanity. What is the the impact of witnessing a genocide?

Citizen referendums on town meeting day are nothing new. Vermont towns and cities have passed many resolutions on substantial national and international issues the Iraq War, Healthcare for All, Nuclear Freeze, solidarity with Central American peoples against U.S.-funded wars, and South African Apartheid are some of the issues debated and voted on over the past decades.

Send an email to info@SoVT4Palestine.org, and we will offer guidance based on where you live and what level of involvement you can take on.