Green Party endorses American Anthropological Association’s BDS resolution

The Green Party endorsed the boycott resolution proposed by the American Anthropological Association (AAA).

The resolution calls on a boycott of Israeli academic institutions, as well as encouraging academic groups to push for similar resolutions to take part in the effort to promote basic human rights, peace, and equality in the occupied territories of Palestine.

The Green Party partnered with Jewish Voice for Peace in addition to other organizations that are in support of the resolution, which will be voted on during a meeting on November 20 in Denver, Colorado.

The Green Party has endorsed the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) in the past (2005) and even incorporated it into its national platform in response to a call by Palestinian civil society for a global non-violent movement against Israel.

“Nonviolence has been a key value of the Green Party since it was founded. Greens support efforts by Israeli and Palestinian organizations for a peaceful resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict. The Green Party endorses universal enforcement of human rights and strongly condemns all violence and threats of violence against unarmed civilians, regardless of side, as well as vandalism of mosques, synagogues, and businesses owned by Muslims and Jews,” the Green Party’s statement reads.

Bahram Zandi, co-chair of the Green Party and co-chair of the International Committee, stated:

“The Green Party supports BDS as a nonviolent tactic to end decades of Palestinian dispossession by Israel. We know that BDS works — it helped bring an end to apartheid in South Africa. The Israeli government, with unequivocal political, financial, and military support from the U.S., continues to violate Palestinian human rights. It refuses to end the military occupation and ongoing colonization of the West Bank and East Jerusalem and apartheid-like conditions for non-Jews in Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territories. International civil society must step in to press for an end to these injustices.”

The Green Party platform obligates its candidates to stand in support of movements for peace including demilitarization in Israel-Palestine. It also recognizes the failure of the decades of attempts by diplomats to have Israel comply with international laws and give Palestinians basic human rights. Despite the United Nations being critical of Israel’s policies, it has not been able to end Israel’s human rights violations against Palestinians.

The Green Party calls  for Israel to fully comply with international law by ending its occupation and colonization of all Palestinian lands and dismantling the Wall in the West Bank, recognizing the fundamental rights of Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality and protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.