Israel Violates U.S. Charters

by Paul Findley

A retired retail merchant in Seattle, Washington has a new career: he is trying to goad church leaders into living up to their professed ideals.

As a member of the Palestinian Task Force of the Seattle Council of Churches, John O’Connor dispatches a relentless series of appeals to clergymen far and near. All focus on the hypocrisy of America’s unconditional support of the State of Israel. He uses blunt, clear, challenging prose.

For example, he recently wrote to the chairman of a New York organization called the General Commission on Christian Unity, warning that a resolution it is considering would violate cherished American ideals and principles. He charged specifically that, by justifying unconditional aid to Israel, the resolution would effectively convey church sanction to the long-discredited, primitive doctrine that might makes right, a doctrine O’Connor says Israel embraces.

O’Connor wrote: “As one of [Christianity’s] leaders, do you believe the church should look the other way while the U.S. government finances Israel’s subjugation of the Palestinians by actions which are in direct violation of our most fundamental beliefs?”

He warns, “The Mideast problem is not theological. Jews, Christians and Muslims all grew from the same roots and hold substantially the same beliefs. Theologically, Islam is as close to Christianity as Judaism, although the [American media] seems to be trying to make Islam the next enemy of the United States.”

O’Connor declares that the U.S. government engages in hypocrisy on a monumental scale in its Mideast policies by providing assistance without restrictions to a nation that engages in sustained violation of the principles on which the United States was founded. These principles are inspired by the biblical Ten Commandments and expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights, the earliest amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

From the Bill of Rights, O’Connor cites: “Amendment 4. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable seizures...

“Amendment 5. No person...shall be compelled...to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal: that they are endowed by the creator with certain inalienable rights…among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

The Declaration notes that the British king had violated these inalienable rights by “…quartering large bodies of armed troops among us;…protecting [the armed troops] from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants;…depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury.”

“Thou shalt not covet…anything that is thy neighbor’s.”

O’Connor quotes from the Ten Commandments: “Thou shalt not kill…thou shalt not steal…Thou shalt not covet…anything that is thy neighbor’s.”

He lists Israel’s violations of these principles:

This year, without due process, the continued expulsion of Palestinians from their homes and the dynamiting of some of the structures simply on suspicion that they have been harboring terrorists.
Without due process, confiscation of thousands of acres of Palestinian property, much of it since the peace accords were signed in 1993.
The assassination of suspected terrorists by Israeli army special action forces disguised as Palestinians.
The systematic destruction of villages. During their early military conquests, Israeli forces captured 394 Palestinian villages, as well as cities, leveled all structures and left more than 700,000 inhabitants homeless. In one village, Deir Yassin, 351 men, women and children were massacred, an atrocity carried out, historians believe, as a way to create panic in other villages. It worked. More than 500,000 fled from the region.

All of these misdeeds violated the human rights cited in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, rights that were proclaimed by our forefathers for all people in all lands everywhere, not just for Americans.

O’Connor’s words fairly jump from the page: “Is there even one of these actions which does not violate the most basic principles upon which our country was founded?”

The awful litany O’Connor recites gets longer every day. In Lebanon, Israeli military forces recently drove more than 400,000 innocent Lebanese from their homes and caused the death of more than 120 innocent civilians. In the occupied territories as well as in parts of Lebanon and Syria, Israel continues illegally to “quarter large bodies of armed troops” and protects the troops from punishment for “any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants.”

"Might Makes Right"

O’Connor argues powerfully that the U.S. government and Christian leaders are “completely hypocritical in supporting the Israeli government’s policy of ‘might makes right,’ which is completely contrary to the teachings of the church, the principles articulated in the Ten Commandments, our Declaration of Independence and Constitution.”

Two centuries after their promulgation, these precious charters of human dignity need amendment. For nearly a half-century, the people whose lives are blessed by these charters have permitted their government to provide crucial support to a foreign power that inflicts dreadful violations on an entire nationality.

Authority to torture Palestinians remains the law in Israel, a clear violation of the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition against “cruel and unusual punishment.” In Israel “the right of the [Palestinians] to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects” is violated broadly and continuously. When Palestinian property is seized and homes dynamited, there is neither “due process of law” nor “just compensation.”

Given the continued U.S. support of Israel, perhaps the time has come to amend the Declaration of Independence to read that all people are created equal, except Palestinians.