CHICAGO: Jill Stein, running as a third-party candidate in November's US presidential election, said if elected she would immediately end military support for Israel's “apartheid government” and urge Israelis and Palestinians to embrace “real peace”.
In an exclusive interview with Arab News, she said US policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is driven by lobbyists and that anyone who challenges the Israeli government on its responsibility for ethnic cleansing in Palestine is denied their constitutional rights.
Stein is a Green Party candidate who advocates for a range of issues, including environmental activism and the constitutional rights of “all Americans.” She said she would end “police crackdowns” on students protesting on campuses calling for an end to what many consider to be genocide in Gaza, stop the flow of weapons to the Israeli government, and protect the rights of Arab and Muslim Americans “who continue to be victims of racism, violence and Islamophobia.”
She added: “Arabs and Muslims have been taken for granted in America. They are the victims of racial profiling, Islamophobia and violence against Arabs in this country.”
“The government's shutdown of the dialogue is a complete violation of our constitutional rights as people try to wrestle with this carnage they are witnessing in real time on their iPhones and computer screens.
“We need to be talking about this, but Democrats and Republicans alike are trying to brand this discussion as sedition, betrayal and criminalize it,” Stein, a Jewish-American doctor who grew up during the Vietnam War, said of police responses to a wave of student protests at hundreds of universities across the country against the Gaza war.
“They are sending in riot police to beat the heads of protesters who are simply saying what the country's highest court, the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court are saying. What is happening in Gaza is genocide, it is illegal and it must stop.”
“Sending weapons to Israel violates U.S. law, violates humanitarian rights, and impedes the delivery of humanitarian aid. In every respect, providing military aid and weapons to Israel at this time is indeed illegal. Those who stand up for our legal and human values are being criminalized and prosecuted.”
Before being reminded that presidential candidates must be at least 35 when inaugurated, Stein had approached Abdullah Hammoud, the 34-year-old Lebanese-American mayor of Dearborn, Michigan, to be his running mate, but he is three months shy of meeting the constitutional age requirement.
“The Arab American community has suffered incredible injustice,” Stein said, adding that they deserve a stronger political voice and protection from abuse.
“We need to stand up on behalf of all Americans and assert our right to demand a foreign policy that reflects our values. In fact, we need a foreign policy that is based on international law, human rights and diplomacy. That's what the American people want.”
“But our system is fundamentally led by a political and economic elite that is used to fighting for dominance. Our foreign policy is based on the use of raw military force.”
Stein also criticized Israeli government policies and said she opposed the actions of authorities in more than 28 countries who have passed “anti-BDS legislation” targeting activists calling for boycott, divestment and sanctions over Israel's treatment of the Palestinians.
“This is an infringement of our fundamental civil liberties, freedom of speech, freedom of political association, freedom of protest to seek redress of grievances. Democracy is based on this,” Stein said.
“When it comes to BDS, our government should take the lead. How can we get Israel to comply when it has nuclear weapons? We won't send troops, but we certainly can't give Israel weapons. We can deny Israel funding. We can deny it the rockets it relies on. We have the power.”
To support her argument, Stein cited the actions of former presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan, who forced Israeli authorities to withdraw during military conflicts in the Sinai Peninsula in 1956 and Lebanon in the 1980s.
Stein condemned the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 last year, but said criticism of the state of Israel and its actions was “not anti-Semitic” and that the world could not turn a blind eye to the violence against Palestinians that has continued since the founding of the Jewish state in 1948.
“Israel needs to leave,” she said. “Most of the violence is perpetrated by Israel. Civilian lives should never be targeted or lost. But it's not just about 'stop killing people.' The occupation must end. The ethnic cleansing must stop. The destruction and taking of people's homes must stop. The destruction of farmland and olive trees must stop. The all-out war against the Palestinian people must end.”
“This has been years of ethnic cleansing that has finally accelerated into the genocide we are seeing today. We must stand on the side of international law. The United States has the power to do this with a phone call. Congress has the power to block the transfer of weapons to Israel, which is violating human rights.”
Stein traveled to Illinois and Indiana last weekend to organize volunteers who are gathering the signatures needed to get her name on the presidential ballot in both states.
To appear on a state's ballot, a candidate must collect a minimum number of signatures in support of their candidacy from residents of that state, which varies by state. If a candidate meets this goal, they can appear on the state's ballot, even after a challenge that could result in their name being removed from the list of candidates.
