October 13, 2010 -- Julia Willebrand, Green Party candidate for NY State Comptroller, said that if elected, she will use her position to divest the Common Retirement Fund from Israel until such time as the government of Israel complies with international law and the human rights of Palestinians.
"By investing in Israel, the State of New York sustains Israel's shameful violations of international law in the Palestinian Occupied Territories and in Israel," according to Dr. Willebrand. "Israel contravenes scores of UN Security Council Resolutions and the Fourth Geneva Convention by confiscating thousands of acres of Palestinian land and transferring its civilian population into the Occupied Territories to create Jewish-only settlements in which about 500,000 people reside. Rather than using our hard-earned money to invest in jobs for New Yorkers, New York State money helps build these illegal settlements which are also a major obstacle to peace and security for both Palestinians and Israelis," said Dr. Willebrand.
Under current conditions, the Palestinian people are denied their legal right to self-determination and THE right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes in Israel from which they were ethnically cleansed in 1948. The Green Party has demanded that the US end all aid to Israel because it is used to maintain a South African apartheid-like system Bantustans, two different road and legal arrangements in the OPT, launch illegal military assaults such as the 2009 bloody invasion of Gaza, "Operation Cast Lead," and maintain its illegal siege of Gaza since 2006.
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