OTHER PEOPLE’S MAIL

Compiled by Dale Sprusansky

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS 1600 PENNSYLVANIA AVE. NW WASHINGTON, DC 20500 COMMENT LINE: (202) 456-1111 WWW.WHITEHOUSE.GOV/CONTACT SECRETARY OF STATE ANTONY BLINKEN U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE 2201 C ST. NW WASHINGTON, DC 20520 PHONE: (202) 647-6575 VISIT WWW.STATE.GOV TO E-MAIL

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

EVEN AFTER KILLING JOURNALIST, NO ACCOUNTABILITY FOR ISRAEL

To The Lima News, May 27, 2022

“They were armed with cameras.” Those were the exact words of the Israeli military spokesman trying to justify the assassination of highly respected Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.

Shireen had been doing her job as a journalist, which obviously requires carrying a camera. Apparently the Israeli army, which likes to call itself the “most moral in the world,” now justifies killing journalists “armed” with cameras.

Thirty years ago I spent two years as codirector of a school near Bethlehem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Four members of Israel’s “most moral army in the world” caught one of our students, a 14year-old boy who weighed around 100 pounds, in the act of spray painting a wall. They proceeded to rearrange a side of his face with a rubber bullet and then administer a brutal beating with rifle butts that nearly killed him. He was armed with a can of spray paint.

Palestinian journalists will continue being murdered, funeral processions will continue being attacked and Palestinian children will continue being beaten and tortured as long as the United States blindly hands Israel $10.5 million per day to equip the “most moral army” and demands no accountability in return.

Brice Brenneman, St. Marys, OH ENOUGH WITH SPURIOUS CLAIMS OF ANTI-SEMITISM

To The Riverdale Press, June 10, 2022

Councilman Eric Dinowitz denounces groups campaigning for boycott, divestment and sanctions of Israel due to its current policies toward Palestinians.

He refers to “anti-Semitic tropes” and somehow connects BDS to anti-Semitic hate crimes. This is an attack on the CUNY Law School student government and some professors, and also on North Bronx Racial Justice and Jewish Voice for Peace, which recently held a demonstration in Riverdale.

He does not cite one statement by any of these groups which actually denigrates or attacks Jews—that is, anything anti-Semitic. Nor does he cite a single statement by any of these groups saying that Israel should not exist.

In short, these charges of anti-Semitism are simply made up. He is making a demagogic appeal for future votes.

The Israeli state has turned the Gaza Strip into a vast prison camp. It has continued to take land from Palestinians. It has made no serious effort to negotiate a twostate agreement. It has supported Jewish settlers in attacking local Palestinians. It has brutally repressed Palestinian people.

When young Palestinians react with demonstrations—and sometimes by throwing stones—it has beaten them and shot them down. Recently it killed a prominent woman journalist, a Palestinian American, who was unarmed and in an unarmed group. These are the things which the BDS movement opposes.

Opposing such criminal behavior does not make one “anti-Semitic” any more than opposing police or vigilante killings of African Americans makes you “anti-white” or “anti-American.”

Wayne Price, New York, NY URGE CONGRESS TO TAKE ACTION FOR YEMEN

To the Valley News, June 4, 2022

All eyes are on Ukraine, as they should be. The Russian invasion threatens not only to destroy this fledgling democracy but to destabilize the rest of the region.

At least the U.S. is not complicit in waging this war.

But who is watching Yemen, and the seven-year war there led by Saudi Arabia, in which the U.S. is complicit? Specifically, we continue to provide maintenance and intelligence-sharing for warplanes that conduct airstrikes and enforce the air and sea blockade of Yemen.

But there is something you can do. U.S. involvement there is unconstitutional. Congress has never authorized U.S. military participation in the Saudi-led war and blockade. Bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate passed a Yemen War Powers Resolution in 2019 to end our support of this war, but the resolution was vetoed by then-President Donald Trump.

The war and blockade have led to economic collapse in Yemen and a humanitarian disaster. There is massive internal displacement and famine; 24 million people need emergency assistance immediately; nearly 377,000 have been killed; 2.3 million children are suffering from acute malnutrition and tens of thousands are dying of starvation. Watch “The Hunger Ward” for more detailed information (https://www. hungerward.org/see-the-film).

Our financial and material support for the Saudi-led war and blockade is your tax dollars at work. A new War Powers Resolution was introduced in the House in early June, and one is hopefully coming in the Senate. The last time I looked, there were 97 cosponsors. Please urge your representatives to add their names as cosponsors, and second to publicly support the bill and persuade their colleagues to get behind it as well.

The clock for the Yemenis who have survived is ticking.

Lindsay Dearborn, Lebanon, NH ■