OTHER PEOPLE’S MAIL

Compiled by Dale Sprusansky

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ANY MEMBER: U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES WASHINGTON, DC 20515 (202) 225-3121 ANY SENATOR: U.S. SENATE WASHINGTON, DC 20510 (202) 224-3121

ANOTHER REASON TO QUESTION U.S. AID TO ISRAEL

To The Mercury News, May 18, 2022

Veteran Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was assassinated while covering a recent Israeli raid on the refugee camp of Jenin. She was wearing body armor and a helmet clearly marked “press.” People on the scene blamed an Israeli sniper for her death.

Reporters are unwelcomed at these “skirmishes” because they expose the systematic brutality unleashed on the Palestinians who are struggling for their freedom. Albert Einstein warned us about this in his Dec. 4, 1948, letter to the New York Times. We have ignored his warnings and instead financially support Israel as it violates Palestinian human rights and thumbs its nose at international law. U.S. taxpayers give Israel over $10 million a day.

It is high time we evaluate our special relationship with Israel. After all, the Palestinians are fighting for their sovereignty just like the Ukrainians.

Forrest Cioppa, Walnut Creek, CA BLINKEN’S HOLLOW WORDS

To The Gainesville Sun, April 13, 2022

On April 8, Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated, “Americans are, once again, grieving with the Israeli people in the wake of another deadly terrorist attack.” The U.S. is closely following developments, he continued, and is in contact “with our Israeli partners, with whom we stand resolutely in the face of senseless terrorism and violence.” The U.S. ambassador to Israel stated that he was, “horrified to see another cowardly terror attack on innocent civilians.”

Senseless terrorism and violence? Cowardly terrorist attacks? Deaths of innocent lives?

Since Sept. 29, 2000, thousands of Palestinian children have been killed by Israelis and 139 Israeli children have been killed by Palestinians, and more than 10,000 adult Palestinians have been killed by Israel compared to a little over 1,000 Israeli adults killed by Palestinians. Israel is stealing Palestinian land by continuing to build illegal (per the U.N. and international community) settlements in the West Bank. Israel continues to force Palestinians living in Jerusalem out of the homes they’ve had for generations. And the U.S. gives Israel over $10 million a day for their military, and Palestine has no military.

Secretary Blinken, where’s the outrage and horror over Palestinian lives and their loss of sovereignty? Oh, but then again Palestine isn’t our “partner.”

Pam Meyers, Cedar Key, FL FUNDING ISRAEL WHILE SANCTIONING RUSSIA

To The Salt Lake Tribune, March 20, 2022

As we watch, horrified by the violence in Ukraine, I hope we realize that what Ukrainians are suffering today, Palestinians have been suffering for 74 years. Unlike Ukrainians, Palestinians do not have the luxury of taking refuge. Palestinians living in Gaza are sealed in—Israel will not let them out. And in the State of Israel, in occupied East Jerusalem and in the occupied West Bank, Israel has a history of sealing out Palestinians who have fled to avoid war and violence. They are not allowed to return to their homes!

Yet, recently our Congress approved billions in military aid to Ukraine and in the same bill quietly slipped another $4.8 billion in military aid to Israel. I suggest those readers who care watch and share Amnesty International’s new 14-minute YouTube tutorial on Israel’s system of apartheid.

Amnesty’s study finding Israel guilty of apartheid is not the first legal study to draw that conclusion. The first was completed by the Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa in 2009. Nor is it the second. The second was the Russell War Crimes Tribunal Hearings on Palestine held in South Africa, 2010. The third was completed by a United Nations committee. (Our country demanded it be withdrawn.) B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights organization, Human Rights Watch and Adalah came to the same conclusion. And now we have another study, this time from Amnesty International, the largest and most well recognized human rights organization in the world! Will we listen and stop funding these crimes? Isn’t there something a bit ludicrous about fussing when Russia does it and funding when Israel does it?

Frances ReMillard, Kamas, UT

UKRAINE SHOULD BE A GLOBAL CALL FOR JUSTICE

To the Midland Daily News, April 1, 2022

I traveled on a delegation to Palestine/Israel in 2017 with Eyewitness Palestine.

Israel is illegally occupying Palestine, causing the biggest refugee crisis in the world, yet the United States does not sanction Israel. On the contrary, the United States sends military aid to Israel. How would Americans feel if, instead of sanctioning Russia for its actions in Ukraine, the U.S. were to offer military aid to Russia? Americans would be rightly outraged.

Americans who uphold democracy around the world should be outraged at what Russia is doing in Ukraine. But it is

also important not to limit outrage and only care about taking action in support of those with European heritage.

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement seeks to: 1. Grant Palestinian citizens of Israel the same rights as other Israeli citizens. 2. Let Palestinians return to their homes as stipulated in U.N. Resolution 194. 3. End the colonization of Palestine.

Let’s show by our actions that justice should not be limited to those with white skin. Let’s show that you can’t get away with occupation anywhere in the world. Let’s show that no matter your race, religion or ethnicity, Americans will stand up for what is right.

Emma Johnson, Midland, MI

HOW UKRAINIANS AND PALESTINIANS ARE PORTRAYED

To The Register-Guard, March 20, 2022

I would like to share a quote from Mohammed Rafik Mhawesh, a Palestinian writer and journalist based in Gaza City. He says, “We fight our oppressors, and we get branded terrorists. Ukrainians do the same, and they get applauded for their courage.”

Margaret Brye, Eugene, OR TREAT ALL REFUGEES WITH COMPASSION

To The New York Times, April 19, 2022

Over the past few years, I have been to Lebanon several times to help provide art therapy for Syrian refugee children. Last month, I was in Ukraine and Poland providing art therapy for Ukrainian children.

Young children exposed to the trauma of war are at high risk of developing PTSD. Even if they did not see the violence, they can develop PTSD from what their family members have been through. Art and play therapy help them cope and heal.

I have felt conflicted about how different our global response to the refugee crisis in Ukraine, where many of the children have blue eyes and blond hair and identify as Christians, has been. I have provided art therapy for them just as we have for Syrian children in Beirut.

Many of my little Picassos in Beirut are now young adults. Because they have brown eyes, olive skin and are Muslim, they did not receive the same level of love and concern from the West.

As we care for the Ukrainian mothers and children, please consider also supporting the Syrian children, many of whom have been waiting for more than a decade to find a new home and a brighter future.

Howard Dotson, Maple Grove, MN CHILDREN SUFFERING AT ISRAEL’S HANDS

To The Daily Sentinel, April 21, 2022

Thank you for the April 16 article, “An application languishes, a toddler dies.” I have been volunteering with the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF) in Gaza, the West Bank and Palestinian camps in Lebanon since 2011. Unfortunately the story of this toddler is not unusual.

Many children do not get adequate medical care because the Israeli government will not provide travel permits to patients and family members to go to Palestinian hospitals outside of Gaza for specialty care or surgery. Even in the West Bank, a permit is required to go to Jerusalem.

PCRF has built a pediatric cancer center in Gaza, but diagnosis and treatment are difficult. To get a biopsy specimen to an expert pathologist outside of Gaza the Israeli government requires the specimen itself to have it’s own permit to travel and a courier with a permit to transport it. Cancer diagnoses are delayed for these children.

I see families with sick children struggling to get adequate consultation and treatment for complicated, and many times rare, diseases even though subspecialists are only 47 miles away. Even with a permit it is a difficult trip.

I have seen old men cry at the border. I have helped a young boy travel to Detroit to get a prosthesis for his leg that was shot off by Israeli snipers. No one in his family could get a permit to go with him. The treatment of Palestinians is inhumane and children die not only of gunshots.

These families are just like the families I see here in Grand Junction. Families who want the best care for their children. I thank the Sentinel for increasing awareness of the plight of Palestinian families.

Dr. Barbara Zind, Grand Junction, CO

LABELING JEWISH CRITICS OF ISRAEL AS ANTI-SEMITES

To The Boston Globe, March 26, 2022

Whenever supporters of Israel such as Jeff Jacoby (“Make no mistake: Anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism,” Ideas, March 20) claim that anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism, they are endorsing the fallacy that Israel speaks for all Jews. It doesn’t.

Every year, more Jewish people justly criticize Israel’s policies against the Palestinian people. We are honoring our own Jewish tradition to seek justice when we speak out against the ongoing confiscation of land, the theft of water, the restriction of movement, and all the other indignities and deprivations that are being inflicted on a subject population.

We speak out because we were taught by our parents’ generation that silence is complicity. We will not be silenced by the indiscriminate labeling of our testimony as anti-Semitism.

Susan K. Jacoby, Boston, MA U.S. ACTION ON YEMEN WAR IS NEEDED

To The Washington Post, April 20, 2022

The April 16 news article “A Ramadan truce in Yemen offers civilians respite, but no certainty” gave the impression that the United States is a well-meaning observer only marginally involved in this horrific war. Yet for seven years—including after President Joe Biden’s declaration about discontinuing sales of “offensive” weapons— we have provided essential lifelines to the asymmetrically more powerful and bankrolled side, Saudi Arabia, in the form of logistical support, intelligence sharing and parts and maintenance for warplanes.

The Biden administration needs to stop its half-gestures and disingenuous pronouncements about its desire for peace in Yemen. At the same time that we unconvincingly act the part of peacemaker, our country knows it has unique leverage to help end this conflict, simply because we are a key player in helping to keep it alive in the first place. Thus, if we were to cease all U.S. support, it would deflate the blockade that is starving the Yemeni civilian population and put genuine pressure on the Saudi-led coalition to participate in goodfaith negotiations toward a settlement.

The people of Yemen know the truth; they call this the “U.S.-Saudi war.” They are correct.

Carol DiCaprio Herrick, Charlottesville, VA ■