Growing Voices

MICAH passionately supports the Palestinian people who are suffering atrocities on a daily basis. We have learned firsthand about the struggles our sponsored Bethlehem family experienced during normal activities. As we look back on the history of mistreatment in the Holy Land, we look ahead to standing in solidarity with the growing number of voices speaking out against what is clearly indicative of an apartheid state in the Holy Land.

The First Zionist Congress was held in Basel, Switzerland in 1897. On the second day of the congress the Basel Program stated: “Zionism seeks to establish a home for the Jewish people in Palestine secured under public law.”

In 1947 the United Nations adopted Resolution 181 known as the partition plan, which sought to divide the British Mandate of Palestine into Arab and Jewish states.

On May 14, 1948 the state of Israel was created, sparking the first Arab-Israeli War. The war ended in 1949 with Israel’s victory. 750,000 Palestinians were displaced and the territory was divided into three parts: the State of Israel, the West Bank(of the Jordan River), and the Gaza Strip.

The US gives Israel $8 million per day.

The average US taxpayer gives Israel $25.25 in weapons each year.

As of March 1, 2023 the US has given Israel $158 billion since 1949.

“There is no such thing as a Palestinian People…It is not as if we came and threw them out and took their country. They didn’t exist”. - Golda Meir

“We’ll make a pastrami sandwich out of them. We’ll insert a strip of Jewish settlements in between the Palestinians, and then another strip of Jewish settlements right across the West Bank, so that in twenty-five years time, neither the United Nations nor the United States, nobody, will be able to tear it apart.” - Ariel Sharon in 1973

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs(UCHA) has tracked deaths in the Palestinian Israeli conflict since 2008. Between 2008 and 2020 5600 Palestinians were killed and 115,000 were injured. In the same period 250 Israelis were killed and 5,600 were injured.

Israel has violated 28 resolutions of the United Nations Security Council, which are legally binding on member nations of the UN.

Since 1972 the United States has vetoed 53 UN resolutions critical of Israel.

According to Oxfam, because of an import-export ban imposed by Israel on Gaza in 2007, 95% of Gaza’s industrial operations were suspended.

In April 2021 Human Rights Watch released a report accusing Israeli officials of the crimes of apartheid and persecution under international law. The US State Department did not agree.

On July 18, 2021 the General Synod of the United Church of Christ adopted a resolution that refers to Israel’s apartheid system of laws and legal procedures.

On February 1, 2022 Amnesty International published a report,”Israel’s Apartheid Against Palestinians: Cruel System of Domination and Crime Against Humanity.” As of February 12, 2023, 12 Israeli human rights groups had voiced their support for the Amnesty report and condemned the European Commission’s negative reaction.

On June 28, 2022 the US Presbyterian Church passed a resolution stating that “Israel’s laws, policies, and practices regarding the Palestinian people fulfill the international legal definition of apartheid.”