An Open Letter for Justice and Peace
April 14, 2010
To: Members of the Senate; Members of Congress; Vice President Joseph Biden and
the President of the United States of America, Barack Obama:
Regarding Our participation in the oppression of the Palestinian People
Dear All:
One cannot emphasize enough the thunderous humanitarian import of the following
statement:
The violent illegal settlers in the West Bank have the vote; the oppressed Palestinians
who continue to languish under Israel's illegal military occupation do not.
Gaza is a tiny area crammed with starving 1.5 million Palestinian refugees who were
ethnically cleansed from their homes by Israel and then ultimately locked up in the
world's largest open air concentration camp.
Israel broke the ceasefire in 2008 - a ceasefire Israel had agreed to with Hamas. [1a]
Hamas abided by the ceasefire with the understanding that this would lead to the
lifting of the military blockade.[1b]
The entire time Israel, behind everyone's back, girded for destruction; everyone's
back, that is, except our own.
Israel broke the ceasefire, raining hellfire and death upon them - hellfire, I hasten to
add, that we illegally donated to them - a hellfire which included our own donated
white phosphorous chemical weapons; chemicals which cannot be put out with water;
chemicals that burn straight through bone. [1c]
Half of Gaza's 1.5 million hungry, cold, injured, sick and scared individuals are
children. We are hearing reports that Israel, for the first time in over three years, has
just allowed in clothes and shoes. [1d]
Reasonable people surely would feel compelled to ask themselves what children's
shoes have to do with Israel's security. It is but a glimpse of the extremity; of the
imposed deprivation.
Other examples of Palestinian life:
'[The] Israeli regime destroy[ed] some 400,000 trees during their incursions into
territories under the Palestinian Authority's rule in the last two years. [Palestinian
authorities] describe the damage as a systematic move aimed at mounting financial
pressure on Palestinian families, especially those living off their farms and orchards.
Israeli settlers often join the campaign by raiding and burning West Bank olive
orchards and gardens, while a separation wall Israel has been constructing
across the West Bank furthers the burden posed on the Palestinians.' [1e]
From the January - February 2010 Settler Violence Report: '...approximately fifteen
settlers invaded the village of At-Tuwani, south-west of Hebron, and attacked
Palestinians. According to the statement released by the associations Operation Dove
and Christian Peacemaker Teams the settlers were accompanied by Israeli soldiers in
three army jeeps; ...settlers uprooted 8 vineyards; ...settlers attacked a child;
...settlers... stoned cars; settlers damaged the main gate of the school as well as water
pipes, and uprooted trees in the school garden. They damaged windows, classroom
doors, and they wrote bad words against the Palestinians on the walls of the school,
such as death for Arabs, leave this place or we will kill you...'. Etc. [2]
Defense of Children International-Palestine reports that arrests of children have been
increasing. 'Presently approximately 350 West Bank children under 17 are being held
in Israeli prisons. Defense of Children provides testimonies of children, detailing the
brutal circumstances of their detention and interrogation, and their confinement with
adult prisoners. Urgent appeals on behalf of the children are issued by Defense of
Children, including in the case of mass arrests (17 children taken in
night raid from Al Jalazun Refugee Camp near Ramallah), and the
transfer of children to prisons within Israel, where family members cannot visit
because of restrictions on movement of people under Israel's military Occupation.'[3]
I recommend the following Youtube map illustrating the takeover of occupied East
Jerusalem which legally belongs to the Palestinian people; [4]
A child, all of ten years old, abducted by the Israeli Defense Forces in the dead of
night...father tear gassed trying to protect him...[5]
The fact is, that the sheer number of crimes committed against the indigenous
Palestinian people by the State of Israel are as mind-boggling, as racist, as they are
evil; an evil perhaps incubated in an understandable fear grown of the world. But this
perpetual state of injustice will obviously never bring Israel peace.
The situation requires decisive leadership. The U.S., first and foremost, must cut off
the annual billions in American tax dollars and military hardware which underwrite
Israel's crimes.
Sir Gerald Kaufman, a highly respected British parliamentarian, is Jewish. He suffered
loss from the Nazis. Sir Kaufman in a Parliamentary speech, protested:
'The present Israeli government ruthlessly and cynically exploits the continuing guilt
among gentiles over the slaughter of Jews in the Holocaust as justification for their
murder of Palestinians...Madame Deputy Speaker, my grandmother did not die to
provide cover for Israeli soldiers murdering Palestinian grandmothers in Gaza.' [6]
The U.S. must cease breaking American law. It is against American law to knowingly
supply any country with weapons that will be used to commit war crimes and/or
crimes against humanity. We gave them weapons to rain down on the defenseless.
The U.S. must outlaw private charitable donations to the criminal regime of
Israel until Israel swiftly deals on peace - either one bi-national state with equal rights
for all its citizens, or a two-state solution with the starting point of pre-1967 borders
with East Jerusalem as the future Palestinian state capital.
The so-called prime ministerial West Bank representative, Salam
Fayyad, has begun to pitch a faux proposal to unilaterally declare a Palestinian state of
the occupied West Bank - while leaving the occupation in place on occupied
Palestinian lands.
Fayyad's proposal is traitorous, treasonous, and it is, quite frankly, mad. Suffice to
say, the madness of Fayyad does not have the backing of the Palestinian people.
It is time to look past what Israel says. It is high time to only judge what Israel actually
does.
America is a country of laws. It is a country of humanitarian ideals.
It is time for us to start living by them.
I am, most respectfully and sincerely yours,
Diane V. McLoughlin, writer, peace activist
website: mcloughlinpost.com
- To the Office of Public Engagement for your kind assistance in disseminating the
above, I thank you.
Links to selected references:
[1a] Youtube CNN Confirms Israel Broke the Ceasefire First; Jan. 5, 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KntmpoRXFX4
[1b] Graph summary of rocket fire from Gaza 2008, clearly shows period of ceasefire.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Palestinian_rocket_attacks_on_Israel,_2008
[1c] Amnesty International: Gaza white phosphorous shells were U.S. made; Times
Online; Feb. 24, 2009.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article5792182.ece
[1d] Israel allows clothes, shoes into blockaded Gaza for first time - Haaretz - Israel
News; Mar. 29, 2010. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1159929.html
[1e] Israelis don't even spare Palestinian Trees; Press TV; Apr. 7, 2010
http://presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=122693§ionid=351020202
[2] Alternative News.org Settler Violence Report January-February 2010
http://www.alternativenews.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=252
6:settler-violence-report-january-february-2010&catid=119:english&Itemid=878
[3] The Only Democracy.org: In West Bank Palestinian Childhood is Cut Short - It's
the Law; Mar., 2010
http://theonlydemocracy.org/2010/03/in-west-bank-palestinian-childhood-is-cut-short-it
s-the-law/
[4] Youtube: By the Maps: Jerusalem
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-v-Tpg9xN5k&feature=youtu.be&a
[5] IPS News: Israeli Raids Target Children; Mar. 16, 2010
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50680
[6] YouTube - UK Jewish MP: Israel Acting Like Nazis in Gaza; Jan. 16, 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMGuYjt6CP8
home
E-mail Diane V. McLoughlin
April 14, 2010
To: Members of the Senate; Members of Congress; Vice President Joseph Biden and
the President of the United States of America, Barack Obama:
Regarding Our participation in the oppression of the Palestinian People
Dear All:
One cannot emphasize enough the thunderous humanitarian import of the following
statement:
The violent illegal settlers in the West Bank have the vote; the oppressed Palestinians
who continue to languish under Israel's illegal military occupation do not.
Gaza is a tiny area crammed with starving 1.5 million Palestinian refugees who were
ethnically cleansed from their homes by Israel and then ultimately locked up in the
world's largest open air concentration camp.
Israel broke the ceasefire in 2008 - a ceasefire Israel had agreed to with Hamas. [1a]
Hamas abided by the ceasefire with the understanding that this would lead to the
lifting of the military blockade.[1b]
The entire time Israel, behind everyone's back, girded for destruction; everyone's
back, that is, except our own.
Israel broke the ceasefire, raining hellfire and death upon them - hellfire, I hasten to
add, that we illegally donated to them - a hellfire which included our own donated
white phosphorous chemical weapons; chemicals which cannot be put out with water;
chemicals that burn straight through bone. [1c]
Half of Gaza's 1.5 million hungry, cold, injured, sick and scared individuals are
children. We are hearing reports that Israel, for the first time in over three years, has
just allowed in clothes and shoes. [1d]
Reasonable people surely would feel compelled to ask themselves what children's
shoes have to do with Israel's security. It is but a glimpse of the extremity; of the
imposed deprivation.
Other examples of Palestinian life:
'[The] Israeli regime destroy[ed] some 400,000 trees during their incursions into
territories under the Palestinian Authority's rule in the last two years. [Palestinian
authorities] describe the damage as a systematic move aimed at mounting financial
pressure on Palestinian families, especially those living off their farms and orchards.
Israeli settlers often join the campaign by raiding and burning West Bank olive
orchards and gardens, while a separation wall Israel has been constructing
across the West Bank furthers the burden posed on the Palestinians.' [1e]
From the January - February 2010 Settler Violence Report: '...approximately fifteen
settlers invaded the village of At-Tuwani, south-west of Hebron, and attacked
Palestinians. According to the statement released by the associations Operation Dove
and Christian Peacemaker Teams the settlers were accompanied by Israeli soldiers in
three army jeeps; ...settlers uprooted 8 vineyards; ...settlers attacked a child;
...settlers... stoned cars; settlers damaged the main gate of the school as well as water
pipes, and uprooted trees in the school garden. They damaged windows, classroom
doors, and they wrote bad words against the Palestinians on the walls of the school,
such as death for Arabs, leave this place or we will kill you...'. Etc. [2]
Defense of Children International-Palestine reports that arrests of children have been
increasing. 'Presently approximately 350 West Bank children under 17 are being held
in Israeli prisons. Defense of Children provides testimonies of children, detailing the
brutal circumstances of their detention and interrogation, and their confinement with
adult prisoners. Urgent appeals on behalf of the children are issued by Defense of
Children, including in the case of mass arrests (17 children taken in
night raid from Al Jalazun Refugee Camp near Ramallah), and the
transfer of children to prisons within Israel, where family members cannot visit
because of restrictions on movement of people under Israel's military Occupation.'[3]
I recommend the following Youtube map illustrating the takeover of occupied East
Jerusalem which legally belongs to the Palestinian people; [4]
A child, all of ten years old, abducted by the Israeli Defense Forces in the dead of
night...father tear gassed trying to protect him...[5]
The fact is, that the sheer number of crimes committed against the indigenous
Palestinian people by the State of Israel are as mind-boggling, as racist, as they are
evil; an evil perhaps incubated in an understandable fear grown of the world. But this
perpetual state of injustice will obviously never bring Israel peace.
The situation requires decisive leadership. The U.S., first and foremost, must cut off
the annual billions in American tax dollars and military hardware which underwrite
Israel's crimes.
Sir Gerald Kaufman, a highly respected British parliamentarian, is Jewish. He suffered
loss from the Nazis. Sir Kaufman in a Parliamentary speech, protested:
'The present Israeli government ruthlessly and cynically exploits the continuing guilt
among gentiles over the slaughter of Jews in the Holocaust as justification for their
murder of Palestinians...Madame Deputy Speaker, my grandmother did not die to
provide cover for Israeli soldiers murdering Palestinian grandmothers in Gaza.' [6]
The U.S. must cease breaking American law. It is against American law to knowingly
supply any country with weapons that will be used to commit war crimes and/or
crimes against humanity. We gave them weapons to rain down on the defenseless.
The U.S. must outlaw private charitable donations to the criminal regime of
Israel until Israel swiftly deals on peace - either one bi-national state with equal rights
for all its citizens, or a two-state solution with the starting point of pre-1967 borders
with East Jerusalem as the future Palestinian state capital.
The so-called prime ministerial West Bank representative, Salam
Fayyad, has begun to pitch a faux proposal to unilaterally declare a Palestinian state of
the occupied West Bank - while leaving the occupation in place on occupied
Palestinian lands.
Fayyad's proposal is traitorous, treasonous, and it is, quite frankly, mad. Suffice to
say, the madness of Fayyad does not have the backing of the Palestinian people.
It is time to look past what Israel says. It is high time to only judge what Israel actually
does.
America is a country of laws. It is a country of humanitarian ideals.
It is time for us to start living by them.
I am, most respectfully and sincerely yours,
Diane V. McLoughlin, writer, peace activist
website: mcloughlinpost.com
- To the Office of Public Engagement for your kind assistance in disseminating the
above, I thank you.
Links to selected references:
[1a] Youtube CNN Confirms Israel Broke the Ceasefire First; Jan. 5, 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KntmpoRXFX4
[1b] Graph summary of rocket fire from Gaza 2008, clearly shows period of ceasefire.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Palestinian_rocket_attacks_on_Israel,_2008
[1c] Amnesty International: Gaza white phosphorous shells were U.S. made; Times
Online; Feb. 24, 2009.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article5792182.ece
[1d] Israel allows clothes, shoes into blockaded Gaza for first time - Haaretz - Israel
News; Mar. 29, 2010. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1159929.html
[1e] Israelis don't even spare Palestinian Trees; Press TV; Apr. 7, 2010
http://presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=122693§ionid=351020202
[2] Alternative News.org Settler Violence Report January-February 2010
http://www.alternativenews.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=252
6:settler-violence-report-january-february-2010&catid=119:english&Itemid=878
[3] The Only Democracy.org: In West Bank Palestinian Childhood is Cut Short - It's
the Law; Mar., 2010
http://theonlydemocracy.org/2010/03/in-west-bank-palestinian-childhood-is-cut-short-it
s-the-law/
[4] Youtube: By the Maps: Jerusalem
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-v-Tpg9xN5k&feature=youtu.be&a
[5] IPS News: Israeli Raids Target Children; Mar. 16, 2010
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50680
[6] YouTube - UK Jewish MP: Israel Acting Like Nazis in Gaza; Jan. 16, 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMGuYjt6CP8
home
E-mail Diane V. McLoughlin