When California Congressman Kamala Harris announced her candidacy for the next US presidency, she became one of the many Democrats who are applying for the nomination. Harris is widely accepted by progressive Democrats and considers herself progressive. Although she has not been more than two years in office, she has taken several positions on foreign policy that raise the suspicions of human rights advocates and the rule of international law.
In 2017, Harris joined President Donald Trump in his criticism of former President Barack Obama for refusing to veto a Security Council resolution against Israeli settlements, albeit formally. The resolution reiterated Israel's call to halt settlement expansion in the West Bank , Which violates the Geneva Convention.
For his part, the US Congress passed a resolution, approved by Harris also rejects the UN resolution and refuses to intervene in cases related to international humanitarian law in the areas of occupation.
The UN Security Council resolution called on the Israeli and Palestinian governments to prevent violence against civilians, condemn acts of terrorism and comply with their obligations under international law. But the congressional decision considered the UN resolution a unilateral one.
Congress's decision that the Obama administration abstain from voting in the Security Council would undermine the Oslo Accords with regard to the two-state solution. Strangely enough, this decision did not address the fact that the expansion of the settlements by the Prime Minister of Israel, to the extent that the possibility of establishing a Palestinian State is impossible, could undermine those agreements.
Congress's decision stressed that the United Nations should have no role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and that the issue of settlements should be determined by direct negotiations sponsored by the United States.
On the 50th anniversary of the June War, Harris supported another Congressional resolution endorsing the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem. In an effort to belittle the reports of human rights groups that spoke of Israeli ill-treatment of non-Jews in the city, the resolution commended Israel for ensuring that the rights of Muslim and Palestinian Christians remained "respected and protected." Although they supported the two-state solution, The distinction between criticism of the Israeli occupation and its criticism of Israel itself.
The campaign to support Israel's boycott, divestment, and sanctions on manufactured goods in the settlements was accused of being anti-Semitic and claimed that efforts by the United Nations to pressure the Netanyahu government to end its violations of international humanitarian law were actually aimed at " Delegitimization of Israel. "Harris signed a letter of criticism to the United Nations and its affiliated organizations for making those efforts that made the former United Nations Trump representative, Nikki Healy, attack the entire international community.
Harris insists that lasting peace can only happen, not by the Palestinians' commitment to their recognition of Israel and its security, but to explicitly recognize Israel as a "Jewish state" - a requirement not mentioned in the peace accords Egypt and Jordan have signed with Israel.
In fact, there is no peace agreement, in which recognition of the ethnic or religious identity of the state is a prerequisite for ending the conflict. By adding this condition to the peace process, which most Palestinian leaders can not moderate, Harris seems to be trying to blame the lack of a negotiated settlement on the part of Israel.
In several stages, Democrats - members of the US Congress - supported biased solutions to Israel and made statements that made supporters of human rights and international law deeply disappointed, but Harris went far beyond the positions of pressure groups working for Israel in Washington.
Stephen Suniz is a writer at Foreign Policy in Fox and a professor of politics at the University of San Francisco
House of democracy «beautiful»
Harris, unlike her congressional counterparts, has not asked Israel or Netanyahu publicly to respect the rights of Palestinians, reports said on the Internet. She refused to join fellow Democratic and Republican congressmen, such as Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warner, in their letter to Netanyahu, demanding that it stop the destruction of a Palestinian village and not join Sanders and Warner in criticizing the excessive use of lethal force against Palestinians trapped in Israel. Gaza. Despite numerous reports condemning Israel's repression of Palestinians in the West Bank and inside the Green Line, Harris says Israel is "the beautiful home of democracy and justice."
Although most Democrats are now allied with the more moderate J Street organization to support Israel from AIPAC in its support, the Jewish Telegraph Agency reported that "Harris is more inclined to AIPAC than (J Street). "It is common for US congressmen, progressives, to ignore any issue of Israel and Palestine. But Harris' views are not extreme and dangerous, but an indication of their flagrant contempt for human rights and international law in their foreign policy views.
Harris claims that they support a two-state solution, but in practice she has not given any indication that she is prepared to take any plan, to make it possible in reality. In fact, they have supported policies that make this solution impossible.
By rejecting any role of the United Nations or relevant international humanitarian law in the occupied territories, and insisting that such issues could be resolved through the voluntary consent of the occupying Power, Harris provides authorization to aggressor States throughout the world to attack and occupy their neighbors with full immunity . It seems to adopt the neoconservative view of the world, which supports the right of occupation, rejection of international law that rejects the expansion of states by force from occupation of their neighbors, and the colonization of the occupied country with its inhabitants.
Harris's position on Israel and Palestine reflects her comprehensive view of the world. In fact, she prefers the right of occupation to the right to self-determination. It protects the right of the French to colonize Algeria and the British in the occupation of Kenya and Rhodesia, and opposes any efforts by the United Nations to decolonize.
Given the negative repercussions of the staunch positions on Israel and Palestine, they must not be left untouched. Given how she has handled foreign policy issues since entering Congress two years ago, her current views may be more flexible than they were before. Progressive activists are encouraging the left, in the Democratic Party, to address a series of issues this year, and foreign policy must be one of them.
Harris accused the campaigns supporting the movement of boycotting Israel and divesting them, and imposing sanctions on goods manufactured in the settlements, as anti-Semitic, and claimed that efforts by the United Nations to pressure the Netanyahu government to put an end to its violations of international humanitarian law, To delegitimize Israel. "