In further signs that support for Israel has morphed into a religious extremist position, Bible-thumping, far-right American voters within the Texas Republican Party have approved a platform that will make it illegal to create a Palestinian State in territories controlled by the apartheid state.
The platform, approved by 5,100 delegates in Houston on Saturday, supports the “prohibition of a Palestinian State within the historical borders of Israel, as it would jeopardise Israel’s security and it would force Israel to give up land that God gave to the Jewish people as referenced in Genesis.”
Going beyond all previous anti-Palestinian positions ever adopted by an American party, the GOP platform approved the creation of what is often referred to as “Greater Israel,” which will see Israel expand ethno-nationalist Jewish domination to every inch of Historic Palestine.
After decades of ethnic cleansing, artificial re-drawing of borders and population control based on who is and is not Jewish, Israel has managed to wrestle total control of the territory from the West of River Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea. Currently, as many as 12 million people reside in Historic Palestine, but full rights are granted by the occupation state to Jews only.
The remaining six million non-Jews are subjected to various forms of racial discrimination, depending on their place of residence. While non-Jews are denied full equality with Jews wherever they live, the 1.8 million Palestinian citizens of Israel, for example, have more rights than Palestinians in every other zone of Israeli control.
Though they face various forms of racial discrimination, Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem are granted relatively better status than Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, where the native population has been caged into an “open air prison”.
Also, a racist policy enshrined in Israeli law denies some six million Palestinian refugees the right to return to the territory from which they were expelled only a few decades ago. The same law, however, permits every Jew across the world to “return” and settle in any part of Palestine, despite not having any direct connection to the land, other than Biblical claims mentioned in the Genesis.
Such practices, including the racial fragmentation of Palestine into zones of control where half the population enjoys full rights of citizenship denied to the non-Jewish half, has persuaded every major human rights group to label Israel an apartheid state
As of 2019, 138 of the 193 UN member states have recognised the State of Palestine. Moreover, every UN member, including the US and European countries, are ostensibly committed to the creation of a fully sovereign Palestinian State. Nevertheless, every major Israeli party explicitly rejects the international consensus and now have found strong support for their radical position from the Texas Republican party in foreclosing any chance of a Palestinian State from ever being established.
Though party platforms do not necessarily translate into government policy, critics cite the former US President Donald Trump and the support enjoyed by Israel amongst powerful Evangelical Christians as well as fringe elements in US society, to argue that the most extreme and rejectionist views about the apartheid state have become normalised in US politics.
Amongst the other policies adopted by the pro-Israel Texas constituency is a proposal to hold a referendum on seceding from the US; a rejection of Joe Biden’s presidency; calls for the repeal of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which guaranteed Black voters representation.