The people of Palestine and Israel deserve freedom, prosperity, and shared peace.
This is best achieved through good faith negotiations in which both parties seek an outcome of mutual benefit. However, there is a vast power disparity between the two sides that prevents the achievement of this goal.
Palestinians have everything to gain from escaping their present conditions of extreme poverty and repression. Both inside and outside Israel, Palestinians suffer greatly under current Israeli policies. Unfortunately, successive Israeli governments have continued to expand Israeli borders into what remains of Palestinian land. Along the way, Israel has received billions of dollars in military and economic aid from the US.
A long-term peace will be achieved when U.S. support for Israel is linked to Israeli support for peace. U.S.-based advocates for peace must push the U.S. government to link any support for Israel to the emergence of an Israeli government that supports true peace and reconciliation with the Palestinian people.
At a minimum, a true reconciliation between the Israeli government and the Palestinian people would include the following:
- The creation of a viable Palestinian state as part of a negotiated two-state solution, based on the 1967 borders with agreed reciprocal land swaps.
- The sharing of Jerusalem by both the Palestinian and Israeli states.
- An end to Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem.
- An end to the Israeli/Egyptian siege of Gaza.
- An end to discriminatory Israeli laws that adversely impact Palestinian citizens of Israel.
- Repatriation and/or compensation for Palestinian refugees, as determined by Palestinian political representatives.
- An enforced end to the violence experienced by all people in the region.
Freedom Forward is committed to building public support for a fair political process in which these matters are addressed and a lasting peace is achieved.