US campaign for the Palestinian rights
Introduction
Politics in the U.S encompass the government and the law since it is the role of the government to make decisions and develop rules, regulations, and policies that guide and shape the social system. The U.S Complain for the Palestinians Right (USCPR) is a political aspect in U.S where the U.S government view the lack of justice, freedom, and equality a humanistic matter. For many years, Palestinians have lived under Israeli restricts and they have been subjected to a humanitarian crisis. The Israeli military limit their freedom such as controlling the flow of goods, access to water, access to health, access to human and civil rights, and labor laws. The U.S is showing great efforts in offering a two-state solution to the conflict that exists between Israeli and Palestinians. The U.S aims at establishing democracy, good governance and help the Palestinians Authority receive international recognition. The US is committed to Palestinian rights, and the USCPR is doing a great job to ensure that Palestinians achieve freedom, justice, and equality.
Palestine and the United States once had a diplomatic relationship, but the relations do not exist since the U.S failed to recognize Palestine as a State (Jones, 2018). Currently, the relation that exists is between the U.S government and the Palestinian Liberation Organization as both work together to support the Palestinians ‘rights to return' to their territories which were occupied by Israel. The majority of the Palestinians live in the West Bank and the Gaza Strips; regions which are occupied by Israel. The U.S recognized Israel a State, and it cooperates with the Arab nations to support the State. The relationships among the U.S, Arab nations, and Israel have created anti-American Islamic sentiment (Jones, 2018). The U.S focus on creating a safe environment in Israel with the aim of achieving its energy needs. These goals have locked the Israel and Palestine in a tug-of-war since each wants to be recognized as a State.
There is U.S Palestinian solidarity movement that aims at empowering the Palestinian assisting them in achieving their freedom, justice, and equality. The movement has created a collaborative politic in the U.S where structural and political centrality have been developed with the aim of creating a two-state solution that focuses on securing the fundamental rights of the Palestinians (Elman, 2018). The important point is that the campaign does not focus on developing a statehood, but its focus on reclaiming the Palestinians rights to help them free from the Israel state oppression. In this case, the Palestinians rights are not only based on the national self-determination, but rights should also be based on the political, civil, economic and other fundamental rights (Institute for NGO Research, 2018). Example of the US Palestinian solidarity groups includes Palestinian, Arab, Muslim and individual activists. These groups make community-based organizations and campaign-based initiatives. The U.S Palestinian solidarity groups are under the control of the Boycott Divestment, and Sanctions. The BDS has played a significant role in unifying the many Palestinian solidarity movements by establishing principles which the organizations should follow. The primary goal of the movement is to discourage the international support to Israel and encourages the need for Israel to adhere to International law (BNC. n.d). BDS focus on the fundamental rights and the need to end the Israel apartheid practices.
Another group that is working to help the Palestinians achieve their fundamental rights is the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR). This is a union which holds common goals of improving the Palestinians achieve freedom, justice equality (GUIDESTAR, 2018). Even though the coalition is determined to end the Israel occupation, its vision is directed on achieving fundamental rights since Palestinians are not only in need for reoccupying their they demand justice, freedom and full equality (US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, 2016). In other words, the movement focus on helping the Palestinians realize their social, cultural and economic rights.
The Grassroots International is a non-profit Organization that play a significant role in solving the inequality issues. It supports the social movement and human rights work to ensure the well-being of people. Grassroots International supports the US movement toward reclaiming the Palestinian rights and ending the Israel occupation (Grassroots International, 2018). The Organization focus on identifying the cause of the problem and offering solutions to promote the well-being. Other sources of funding come from individual donations and several supporters.
Ethics, stewardship and civil engagement
In politics, ethics can be defined as adhering to moral virtues in making decisions and policies. The efforts to maintain peace and building citizens trust between the Israelis and Palestinians requires transparency and accountability. In this case, the public servants or the representatives are expected to have a high standard of conduct before entering into the public administration. Public servants need to have a common understanding and adhere to the set values and standards (US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, 2016). The US Campaign for Palestinian Rights have common ethical principles which guide them toward achieving their goals of bringing resolutions between the Israelis and Palestinians. All members in the USCPR have common goals that is; adhering to the international law in promoting peace, maintaining human rights and bringing resolutions. The ethical principles also state that members should not allow the Israelis to use military, financial form or apartheid policies to control Palestinians (STAFF, 2018). The members also agree that the goal of the campaign is to assist the Palestinians to achieve freedom, full equality and right to self-determination. The ethics also states that the USCPR should oppose racism, anti-Semitism, bigoted behaviors and oppressive structures.
In politics, stewardship is the act of governing a nation-state and managing public resources. Political stewardship is essential for preventing tyrants and authoritarian oligarchy who would consider the public funds as their private property. The United Nations (2012) reports that effort to create an independent Palestine emerges from the United Nations and much efforts comes from the U.S administrations. However, the Palestinian authorities argue that the state does not achieve a statehood recognition or in other words, it has not achieved full UN membership. President Mahmoud Abbas said that the ongoing peace negotiations are frozen and illegal and the UN Security Council does not support the State but Palestine continues to suffer from economic and fiscal conditions due to the internal divisions and Israel's security restrictions (United Nations, 2012). For this reason, Palestinian Authority seek for a non-member state status from the U.N where it would act as a permanent observer. In this case, Palestine as a permanent observer may play the role of attending and speaking at the General Assembly conferences, voting, cosponsor resolutions, submit proposals, circulate documents, participate in debate and more.The UN is doing a good job in that by granting Palestine a non-member state status; it will experience intended consequences such as a symbolic victory for the Palestinian Authority (United Nations, 2012). The UN is also acting as a steward with the aim of achieving a two-State solution through peaceful negotiations. Through its stewardship, it has created an independent and a democratic State.
In politics, civil engagement can be defined as working together as political and non-political agents to make a difference in the community. People combine knowledge and skills and motivate each other in making policy, shaping culture and socioeconomic status. USAID is doing a good in ensuring that the government and the citizens participate in making decisions regarding the West Bank and Gaza which are under the Israel control (USAID, 2017). In addition, both government and the citizens are working together to eliminate the conflict and promote peaceful coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians through engaging in conflict management programs where Israelis and Palestinians discuss issues related to economic development, health, education and more, providing grants and improving the governmental institutions. Through civic engagement (people-to-people activities and community-based organizations) the West Back municipalities and other ministries have improved governance (USAID, 2017). USAID has empowered the civil engagement activities with the goal of ensuring effective solutions between Israeli-Palestinian. Also, USAID also focuses on bringing economic opportunity and humanitarian needs such as education and health access, infrastructure development, employment growth and more importantly build a democratic region that would benefit both the Palestinians and Israelis. Civil engagement activities include the communities and municipal governments working together to improve the policy framework and increase accountability and transparency (USAID, 2017). The Enhanced Palestinian Justice Program has developed justice sector institutions for meeting the citizens' needs and providing technical assistance and training to court facilities. There are women's courts which are created to support women, protecting their rights, supporting civil society organizations and addressing gender-based violence. Through USAID, civil society organizations have created a protective environment for children with the aim of preventing sexual abuse and providing essential services to the families (USAID, 2017). USAID has developed social accountability where the civil society is given the role of monitoring the West Bank localities and ensuring that citizens' rights are met.
Conclusion
Palestinians have experienced severe conditions under the Israel government. The latter enforce discriminatory restrictions on the movement of goods, restrictions to agricultural land among other punitive measures that have led to the humanistic crisis. These issues are alarming and have led to the rise of international actors to assist the Palestinians to achieve the freedom, justice, and equality. The US campaign for the Palestinian rights has brought a two-state solution toward resolving the conflict. The coalition focus on opposing the military and financial support to Israel for the Palestinian to achieve full equality, justice, and freedom.
References
Jones Steve. (2018). A Brief History of U.S.-Israel-Palestinian Relations. ThoughtCo. Retrieved from: https://www.thoughtco.com/early-u-s-palestinian-relations-3310398
Elman Miriam. (2018). Legal Insurrection. StnadWithUs.com. Retrieved from: http://www.standwithus.com/news/article.asp?id=5764.
Institute for NGO Research. (2018). US Campaign for Palestinian Rights. Retrieved from: https://www.ngo-monitor.org/ngos/us-campaign-to-end-israeli-occupation/
GUIDESTAR. (2018). EDUCATION FRO JUST PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST. Retrieved from: https://www.guidestar.org/profile/42-1636592
BDS National Committee. (BNC. n.d). What is BDS? Retrieved from: https://bdsmovement.net/what-is-bds
STAFF TOI. (2018). US COMPAIGN FOR PALESTINIAN RIGHTS. THE TIMES OF ISRAEL. Retrieved from: https://www.timesofisrael.com/topic/us-campaign-for-palestinian-rights/
Grassroots International. (2018). US COMPAIGN FOR PALESTINIAN RIGHT. Retrieved from: https://grassrootsonline.org/what-we-do/advocacy/us-campaign-to-end-the-israeli-occupation/
United Nations. (2012). General Assembly Votes Overwhelming to Accord Palestine ‘Non-Member Observer State’ Status in United Nations. New York. Retrieved from: https://www.un.org/press/en/2012/ga11317.doc.htm
USAID. (2017). GOVERNNACE AND CIVIL ENGAGEMENT. Retrieved from: https://www.usaid.gov/west-bank-and-gaza/fact-sheets/governance-and-civic-engagement
US Campaign for Palestinian Rights. (2016). Retrieved from: https://uscpr.org/about-us/
