Joel Gulledge, a member of the Christian Peacemaker Team, spent time recently in the West Bank - for the purpose of helping get children safely to and from school under the onslaught of Israeli settlers.
The "experience" was obviously a harrowing one apart from clearly highlighting the lawlessness of the Israeli settlers and the IDF not intervening to protect the Palestinian children from the attacks.
Gulledge writing on clarionledger.com under the headline "Israel must rein in settler movement, protect Palestinian children" says:
"The day I was attacked, the Palestinian children with me were fortunate to escape unscathed. One result of my spilt American blood is that the Israeli military is now providing these children with an escort. However, just three days after my attack, my colleagues in CPT and other international volunteers witnessed the soldiers failing to escort the children the entire designated route; settlers hiding along the way began to throw rocks at the children. And, according to a report issued in July by the Israeli human rights group Yesh Din, only one in 10 Israeli investigations of settler attacks on Palestinians ends with anyone being charged with a crime.
Something has gone profoundly wrong when Palestinian children must risk their lives just to get to school. It is past time for our government to pressure Israel to rein in the settler movement."
Read that piece, in full, here - at the same time reflecting on this report from Reuters that those Americans donating to the development of the settlements can claim a tax-deduction. So here you have the US counselling Israel to stop the expansion of settlements yet allowing for tax deductions for those donating money to facilitate them.
"The United States says Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank threaten any peace between Israel and the Palestinians -- yet it also encourages Americans to help support settlers by offering tax breaks on donations.
As Condoleezza Rice flew in on Monday for another round of peace talks, Israeli and American supporters of settlements defended the tax incentives, which benefit West Bank enclaves deemed illegal by the World Court and which the U.S. secretary of state has said are an obstacle to Palestinian statehood.
Pro-settler groups say they are entitled to the tax breaks because their work is "humanitarian", not political, and reject any comparison to Palestinian charities, some of which face U.S. sanctions over suspected links to Islamist groups like Hamas.
The full extent of tax-exempt U.S. funding for settlements is unclear because so many groups are involved and their spending practices are not always transparent.
But a review by Reuters of U.S. tax records found 13 tax-exempt organizations openly linked to settlements that have raised more than $35 million in the last five years alone."
The "experience" was obviously a harrowing one apart from clearly highlighting the lawlessness of the Israeli settlers and the IDF not intervening to protect the Palestinian children from the attacks.
Gulledge writing on clarionledger.com under the headline "Israel must rein in settler movement, protect Palestinian children" says:
"The day I was attacked, the Palestinian children with me were fortunate to escape unscathed. One result of my spilt American blood is that the Israeli military is now providing these children with an escort. However, just three days after my attack, my colleagues in CPT and other international volunteers witnessed the soldiers failing to escort the children the entire designated route; settlers hiding along the way began to throw rocks at the children. And, according to a report issued in July by the Israeli human rights group Yesh Din, only one in 10 Israeli investigations of settler attacks on Palestinians ends with anyone being charged with a crime.
Something has gone profoundly wrong when Palestinian children must risk their lives just to get to school. It is past time for our government to pressure Israel to rein in the settler movement."
Read that piece, in full, here - at the same time reflecting on this report from Reuters that those Americans donating to the development of the settlements can claim a tax-deduction. So here you have the US counselling Israel to stop the expansion of settlements yet allowing for tax deductions for those donating money to facilitate them.
"The United States says Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank threaten any peace between Israel and the Palestinians -- yet it also encourages Americans to help support settlers by offering tax breaks on donations.
As Condoleezza Rice flew in on Monday for another round of peace talks, Israeli and American supporters of settlements defended the tax incentives, which benefit West Bank enclaves deemed illegal by the World Court and which the U.S. secretary of state has said are an obstacle to Palestinian statehood.
Pro-settler groups say they are entitled to the tax breaks because their work is "humanitarian", not political, and reject any comparison to Palestinian charities, some of which face U.S. sanctions over suspected links to Islamist groups like Hamas.
The full extent of tax-exempt U.S. funding for settlements is unclear because so many groups are involved and their spending practices are not always transparent.
But a review by Reuters of U.S. tax records found 13 tax-exempt organizations openly linked to settlements that have raised more than $35 million in the last five years alone."
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