++++++++++++ ACTION ALERT +++++++++++++++++ BACKGROUND: The US pays 22% of the entire annual UN budget - US senators threaten to cut US aid to the Palestinians The Palestinian Authority’s unilateral decision to join the International Criminal Court (ICC) is counterproductive and it has met with a strong response by the United States Congress. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced that the Palestinians will join the ICC starting April 2015. The five prominent Senators who issued a formal statement deploring this PA move are: Mark Kirk R-IL, Lindsey Graham R-SC, Robert Menendez D-NJ, Chuck Schumer D-NY and Bob Corker R-TN. Existing US law makes clear that if the Palestinians initiate an ICC judiciary authorized investigation or actively support such an investigation, all economic assistance to the PA must end. In light of this legal requirement, Congress must reassess its support for assistance to the PA. They should seek additional ways to make clear to Palestinian Authority president Mahmaud Abbas that they strongly oppose his efforts to seek unilateral illegal membership in the ICC. If the ICC is making the mistake of accepting the PA as a member, given that it is not a state, Congress should seek ways to protect Israeli citizens from politically abusive ICC actions. In the statement the five US Senators said that the Palestinians would try to do what the ICC had done with other UN and international organizations: “take an organization with laudable goals and undermine its credibility by turning it into a political battering ram against Israel.” They released a joint statement deploring the Palestinians unilateral move. Please make sure that your Congressional leaders knows that you support the message of the Senators to stop funding the PA due to this illegal act of pushing an ICC investigation of Israel. Israel’s acts of self-defense are not war crimes! LINK TO ACTION ALERT LETTER unitycoalitionforisrael.org/aa/alert.php?id=134
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 05:34:41 +0000