opmr2_71-72.qxp_Other Peoples Mail 3/31/21 11:39 AM Page 71
Other People’s Mail Compiled by Dale Sprusansky REP. DELGADO IS IGNORING HIS CONSTITUENTS ON PALESTINE
To the Daily Freeman, Feb. 13, 2021 Rep. Antonio Delgado (D-NY) certainly has Israel as his friend. The Israel lobby gave him a free trip to Israel at the start of this first term, and has been very kind to him ever since. The website Open Secrets has Rep. Delgado receiving $29,698 from the lobby for 2020. Rep. Delgado's constituents haven't been so lucky. Four local groups (Jewish Voice for Peace-Hudson Valley, Middle East Crisis, Veterans For Peace and Women in Black-New Paltz) have been asking for a meeting with him for the last two years. According to his junior legislative assistant, Matthew Gerson, Rep. Delgado has just been too busy to talk about Palestinian rights. Gerson didn't seem particularly interested either, but that might have been because he interned at the Jewish People Policy Institute, a private non-profit in Israel that promotes the apartheid state. Rep. Delgado has been similarly effective in avoiding questions about Palestine in town hall Zoom meetings. He has refused to cosponsor H.R. 2407, the bill that protects the rights of Palestinian children held in Israeli jails. He never responded to a petition with 2,300 signatures urging him to meet with our four groups. There were numerous letters to the editor and two full page newspaper ads, and still our representative has never let the word “Palestine” slip from between his lips. Isn’t it time for all his constituents to simply ask him to stop taking money from the Israel lobby? We voted for Rep. Delgado to represent us, not Israel. Fred Nagel, Rhinebeck, NY
APPLY THE LEAHY LAW TO ISRAEL
To The Patriot-News, March 14, 2021 Imagine being awakened at 3 a.m. by a loud knock on your front door. Struggling to get awake you find a police officer demanding to apprehend your 16-yearold son. He insists on taking him to the MAY 2021
TELL YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS WHAT YOU THINK PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS 1600 PENNSYLVANIA AVE. NW WASHINGTON, DC 20500 COMMENT LINE: (202) 456-1111 WWW.WHITEHOUSE.GOV/CONTACT
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police station for questioning. You strongly protest, but in minutes your son is taken away by force from your home. Each year, the Israeli military detains and prosecutes some 700 Palestinian children, mostly teenagers. Of those detained, three out of four experience physical violence during arrest or interrogation. The end product is traumatized children, many showing the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. It is a flagrant abuse of human rights by the Israeli military. The United States is complicit in these human rights abuses. We send approximately $4 billion in military aid to Israel each year. If our government would comply with the Leahy Law this aid would be stopped. The Leahy Law was passed in 1997 by Congress; it prohibits the Department of State and Department of Defense from providing military assistance to foreign countries that violate human rights. Why is our government not complying with the Leahy Law and instead continuing to send substantial monetary aid to Israel every year? Israel is a country guilty of flagrant human rights abuses against Palestinian children. This is a grave injustice. Roger J. Olson, Mechanicsburg, PA
THE U.S. IS NOT A CREDIBLE PEACE BROKER ON ISRAEL-PALESTINE
To the Los Angeles Times, Feb. 25, 2021 Many thanks to columnist Nicholas Goldberg for calling for renewed efforts toward Palestinian-Israeli peace. His column notes the suffering on both sides and the shared culpability, but a major factor is missing: the vast power differential in which Israel has a crushing advantage over the Palestinians. The numbers reveal a disturbing inequity. For instance, in fiscal year 2018, the United States provided Israel with more than $3.1 billion in military aid and gave the Palestinians exactly $0. Since September 2000, about 1,300 Israelis
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have been killed compared with about 10,000 Palestinians, according to organizations that monitor Israeli-Palestinian violence. This raises serious questions: Should the U.S., with its one-sided commitment, be the broker in peace talks? And where does the major responsibility lie when one side holds the power and the other suffers an outsize share of casualties? Any call for negotiations should bring these issues to the fore. Barbara Erickson, Berkeley, CA
ISRAEL FITS THE DEFINITION OF APARTHEID
To The Times-Tribune, March 17, 2021 I thank David Fallk (“Target misplaced,” March 3) for continuing the debate on whether Israel is a democracy or an apartheid regime. It is a necessary conversation as the American public is swamped with false narratives about the Middle East, particularly the Palestine issue. By definition an apartheid regime is the antithesis of a democracy. The 1973 International Convention on Apartheid defines it as, “inhuman acts committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over any other racial group of persons and systematically oppressing them.” Does Israel satisfy the conditions of apartheid? Let’s count the ways. Palestinians and Israelis in the same territory are subject to two legal systems—military courts for Palestinians, civilian courts for Israelis. In the Occupied Territories, Jews can immigrate and gain citizenship; Palestinians cannot. Palestinians in the Occupied Territories are subject to military rule, denied freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, freedom of movement and even the right not to be detained indefinitely without trial. In the West Bank, Israel has demolished thousands of Palestinian houses
WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS
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