For over 50 years, Israel has been occupying Palestinian land and has been illegally transferring its own population there in violation of international law.

Israel’s decision to begin annexing the West Bank signals to the world that Israel has no intention of allowing a two-state solution in which Palestinians would have basic rights in a state of their own. Annexation formalizes the fact that Israel already controls the entire West Bank and is increasingly evicting Palestinians from their homes and giving their land to Jewish settlers.

The purpose of Zionism for the last 125 years has been to gradually take all the land of Palestine and add it to the territory of a Jewish state. The conquest of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza in 1967 served that purpose, and now annexation is the last stage in the process. Annexation means all of Palestine will be one state with a formalized, permanent apartheid regime.

The response to this by all people of goodwill should be the same as our response to the apartheid regime in South Africa:  boycott, divestment, and sanctions until Israel-Palestine becomes one democratic state with equal rights for all regardless of religion or race. All U.S. aid to Israel should end until that happens.