DROP THE PRETENSE

Bridget Jensen (Houston, TX - Houston Chronicle)

Houston, TX I Houston Chronicle

Eyewitness Palestine delegate Bridget Jensen’s letter to the editor has been published in the Houston Chronicle, in response to the article “Trump puts Mideast on edge:”

She writes, 

“since dropping the pretense of the location of Israel’s capital being other than Jerusalem was one factor in Trump’s recent decision, the discussion of dropping pretenses should be widened, starting with the pretense that there is any peace process.
The only process that seems to have continued is the process of Israel exerting increased control over land and the Palestinian people.
I visited the region this year to witness the current reality of the situation, and what I saw leads me to say that it is also time to drop the pretense that Israel is not an apartheid state.
This term "apartheid,” though simply describing a state that maintains separate and unequal legal structures for different populations, is often avoided because people see it as slanderous and inflammatory. Nonetheless, even former Israeli prime ministers Ehud Barak, Ehud Olmert and Yitzhak Rabin warned of Israel becoming an apartheid state, the pretense being that Israel is not yet there. It’s time to drop that pretense along with the others.“