Since the establishment of the 'State of Israel', following the Palestinian catastrophe, Al Nakba, the successive American administrations have not only been consistently supporting Israel, both politically and financially, but have recently noticeably increased their financial contribution and pushed global partners to do the same.

The Trump administration was just courageous enough to openly declare the American official position related to their support of Israeli Occupation and the colonization of Palestine. The so-called 'Deal of the Century' started practically years ago with the Trump declaration of Jerusalem as the 'Undivided Capital of Israel', then the move of the US Embassy to Jerusalem, the decisions on the Palestinian Refugees and UNRWA and Mr. Pompeo's declaration that the Israeli colonies (settlements) are not in breach of international law.

The 'Deal of the Century', called 'Peace to Prosperity Plan' is in breach of international law and a violation of human rights. It is a one-sided plan that legitimizes illegal theft of land and continued colonization of the Occupied Palestinian Territories with the full control of borders and people. The Plan ignores and undermines all the Palestinian national rights including the right to self-determination and promotes the growing system of Apartheid in Palestine/Israel. The United Nations has itself rejected the plan for not being based on or in compliance with the relevant UN resolutions on Palestine.

Palestinians of different groups, organizations and everywhere in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, inside Israel, and in Diaspora have fully rejected this plan, which bluntly and openly "undressed" the Palestinians from their basic rights as articulated in the UN resolutions pertaining to Palestine, including resolutions 181, 242, and 338.

The Joint Advocacy Initiative of the YWCA of Palestine and the East Jerusalem YMCA is concerned that the implementation of this plan will lead to further conflict, marginalization, discrimination against Palestinians and will support Israel to impose yet more mobility restrictions and closures leading to greater impoverishment of the whole territory. We are afraid that as the British MP Emily Thornberry has very well stated yesterday, "what this plan guarantees is that the next generation of Israeli and Palestinian children like so many generations before them will grow up to know nothing but fear, violence and division". Is that the peace the international community wants, and is that the responsibility that the world has for the generations to come? We speak about UNSCR2250 on Youth, Peace and Security and the right of youth for just peace and engagement in sustainable development. Such a plan undermines any true chance of achieving just peace and building a brighter future for young people and the generations to come. Additionally, and as youth and women organizations, we affirm our opposition to any deal that is not based on international law and that is not negotiated and agreed upon with the Palestinians and that does not guarantee sustainable peace for all the peoples of the region..

JAI calls on our partners and friends worldwide to:

• Promote awareness around the dangers of this Plan and the extent to which it is in breach of international Law.
  
  
• Urge your governments and parliaments to recognize the Palestinian State on the borders of 1967, as recognized by the United Nations General Assembly, in response to the American administration's violation of international law.
  
  
• Organize demos and candle vigils in front of the American embassies and consulates in your respective countries to condemn this American plan.
  
  
• Organize and/or participate in practical campaigns and actions with your churches, movements, councils, countries and any networks to force Israel to comply with international law and end its occupation and colonization of Palestine.
  
  
• Join and promote the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction Campaign (BDS) as a peaceful tool for bringing about peace with justice.

Your commitments need to translate into actions that bring an end to the oppression of the Palestinian people.

Israel has always defined itself as the State of the Jewish People, and its recent adoption of the Jewish Nation State Law is simply a declaration to the world of its historic commitment, ideologically and programmatically, to Jewish supremacy. Many critics of Israel's 51-year-old occupation of Palestinian East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza, and the Syrian Golan Heights have referred to Israel's occupation of these territories as a system of apartheid. However, some among these critics, such as President Jimmy Carter, rejected the use of the same term to describe Israel's relationship to the roughly 20 percent Palestinian Arab minorities who hold Israeli citizenship within Israel's 1948/49 border. After the passage of the new Israeli law, such critics ought to open their eyes to the historical reality of Israel since its establishment in 1948, and recognize the deep racism that underlies its state and society.

The expropriation of Palestinian land and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the early years of Israel's existence were traumatic. Israel's Absentees' Property Law (1950) and Land Acquisition Law (1953), among others, resulted in the pauperization and ghettoization of Palestinian citizens of Israel. More than 60 laws directly and indirectly ensured that they remain far behind Israeli Jews in every aspect of their existence including their access to the legal system, citizenship privileges, income and employment, distribution of resources and social welfare, accessibility to land, educational resources, availability of health resources, and political participation. The Israeli occupation in 1967 of East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza, and the Golan Heights, and the extreme form of apartheid practiced there are an extension of the settler-colonial praxis that created Israel.

What is new is that Israel now feels emboldened by the ascendancy of right-wing racism, xenophobia, and Islamophobia in the United States in particular, and western societies in general. It no longer feels that it has to conceal its own racism. The recent love fest of right-wing extremists in the annual conference of Christians United for Israel in Washington, DC is emblematic of the convergence of Zionism with anti-democratic forces in the West. Thankfully, others in the West are speaking out more forcefully against racism and discrimination in all its forms. And the movement of solidarity with the Palestinians is growing worldwide, including in the United States and Europe.

We call on all people of conscience to condemn Israeli apartheid unapologetically and to heed the call for boycott, divestment, and sanctions in solidarity with the Palestinian non-violent struggle for justice, peace, and freedom. In particular, as a faith-based group, we call on other people of faith, including our evangelical brothers and sisters, to challenge Israel's intensifying apartheid. For Christian groups to remain silent about the implications of Israel's Jewish Nation State Law and all other Israeli human rights violations stands in contradiction to the Biblical mandate to do justice and to stand with the oppressed.