pubs_5r2.qxp_Publishers Page 12/3/20 3:53 PM Page 5
We’ve all seen them, dejected-looking people in endless lines, waiting for food or a COVID-19 test. Some of us have waited in those lines, feeling afraid and utterly powerless. Others are worried about eviction if they can’t pay their rent or wonder if a hospital has room if they get sick. So many have to choose between shelter, food, medicine or heat this winter. These are...
Problems in America...
PHOTO CREDIT AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
Life Amid COVID
American Educational Trust
We Can’t Stop Now
It makes sense that no one in the world is safe from COVID-19 until everyone is safe. The same goes for health care, housing, education, heat and food. We cannot rest until everyone can rest. This certainly incudes the right of people in the Middle East to rest without worrying about more U.S.-manufactured weapons of war decimating their communities.
Life as a Refugee.
As we went to press, UNRWA USA sent a plea for funds as well as legislative action, warning: “UNRWA is facing a funding emergency so dire this December that millions of Palestine refugees living under occupation, blockade and in crisis are at risk of losing their jobs, their health care, education, protection and emergency assistance—all amid a global pandemic.” In the case of Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and in Syria, like the child on our magazine’s cover, they may have reached...
The End of the Line this Winter.
You’ll notice our steadfast advertisers, including ANERA, United Palestinian Appeal, Zakat and Palestinian Medical
Relief Society are all working feverishly to keep refugees safe this winter—amid the pandemic. It defies credibility that some Evangelical Christian, Jewish and Muslim believers, living in a “nation of immigrants,” supported an administration that cut off U.S. aid to desperate refugees and slowed immigration to a trickle. When the Biden administration raises the refugee limit to 125,000 per year, we know that bighearted Americans will spring back into action and help immigrants who have lost everything as a result of America’s “forever wars” in the Middle East. But we shouldn’t wait until Jan. 20, 2021 to get to work.
Here’s a “To-Do New Year’s List”
Read the articles in this issue’s Washington Report, and then call or write legislators, as well as your local media, to give them a piece of your mind. Effective citizens are active citizens and even though the elections are over it’s vital to stay engaged—even if you’re stuck at home. Send our postcard to your elected officials; You might help prevent another catastrophic U.S. war! Write President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, sending your letters to 1401 Constitution Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20230. You know the pro-Israel and weapons lobbies are already hard at work. Our future leaders need to know our views.
Help the Children
Defense for Children International-Palestine just released a report on the experiences of 108 Palestinian children, all boys aged 14-17, who were held in solitary confinement by Israeli authorities. Americans who were shocked by images of immigrant children separated from their parents and locked in cages should also be horrified that Palestinian children continue to experience widespread illtreatment, torture and the systematic denial of rights in Israel. H.R. 2407, Human Rights for Palestinian Children, introduced in April 2019, by Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN), now has 24 cosponsors (see p. 41). Make sure your representative adds his/her name! For more information, please read Chris Doyle’s article on p. 7 in this issue’s “Other Voices.”
Israeli border guards detain a Palestinian child in Jerusalem’s Old City on July 17, 2017. Soldiers typically arrest a child at night when they are sleeping in their home.
that a vaccine alone won’t solve. It’s hard to believe that nearly 26 million American adults are hungry, according to the Washington Post, a number that climbs to more than 1 in 6 adults in households with children. “About 40 percent of the people who are showing up for food distributions have never before had to rely on charitable food assistance,” reports Feeding America, the nation’s largest hunger-relief organization. It warns that more than 54 million may soon face hunger. Those somber numbers make it easier to imagine...
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2021
Publishers’ Page
Help Wanted: Holiday Angels
Please continue to buy meaningful gifts from our online bookstore, MiddleEastBooks.com. Think about taking advantage of our special $15 subscription price to give “the gift that keeps on giving!” That savings ends in January 2021! Please also send in your donations, postmarked in 2020, in order to be added to our final Angels List, published in the next issue. During these frightening times we are all counting on you to...
Make a Difference Today!
WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS
5
