'Israel licensed to destroy with impunity'

Tel Aviv plans to destroy 20 more homes in occupied Palestinian lands to build a park and a public complex.


Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=132830§ionid=351020202



Amid "illegal" Israeli plans to destroy Palestinian homes, a former US congresswoman says Tel Aviv has "impunity" for the aggressive efforts of the pro-Israel lobby in the US.

"The United States and Europe give Israel impunity," Cynthia McKinney said in an interview with Press TV.

The remarks came after Richard Falk, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, slammed Tel Aviv's plan to demolish some 20 Palestinian homes in the Silwan neighborhood of East al-Quds (Jerusalem).

Israel says the homes should be flattened as part of "the King's Garden project" -- a park and a public complex.

Falk, however, argues that the move is illegal. "International law does not allow Israel to bulldoze Palestinians homes to make space for the Mayor's project to build a garden, or anything else."

Branding the move illegal under international law, he has also criticized Tel Aviv's plans to revoke the residence permits of four Palestinians, arguing that their forcible transfer to the occupied West Bank could constitute a war crime.

McKinney, who lost her seat in the House of Representatives after criticizing Israel in public, says to fight the regime's impunity a "counter lobby" must be established in the United States.

"If we had one United States Senator, with conscience and commitment as well as courage, who would stand up to the other members of Congress, who pow-pow and bow to the Israeli lobby… we would then begin to have the kind of accountability that people are looking for," she said.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), considered the most powerful and connected lobbying group in Washington, has been subject to controversy in the past as well.

According to University of Chicago professor John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt from the Harvard University, AIPAC is a "de facto agent for a foreign government," whose "success is due to its ability to reward legislators and congressional candidates who support its agenda, and to punish those who challenge it."