Three Views: Obama's Visit to Israel
President Barack Obama shakes hands with Palestinian children during a visit to the Church of the Nativity in the occupied West Bank town of Bethlehem, March 22, 2013. (ATEF SAFADI-POOL/GETTY IMAGES)
Grave Threats to the Middle East
Lebanese Kurds wave the Kurdish flag and a flag picturing Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan during Persian New Year, or Noruz, celebrations in Beirut, March 21, 2013. (JOSEPH EID/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)
To the Victor, the Spoils
Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lipid (c) with former Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who resigned his position after being indicted on charges of fraud and breach of trust, at the Feb. 5 swearing in of the 19th Knesset. (URIEL SINAI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)
Getting the Words Right: Israel Isn’t Occupying Palestine—It’s Conquered It
Israeli soldiers take pictures of each other in front of Israel’s illegal apartheid wall near the Qalandia checkpoint outside Ramallah, March 30, 2013. Israeli troops earlier had clashed with Palestinian demonstrators commemorating the 37th anniversary of “Land Day.” (ABBAS MOMANI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)
The Cyrus Cylinder—Often Referred to as The “First Bill of Human Rights”
Clay, Babylon, Mesopotamia, after 539 BCE D x H: 7.8-10 x 21.9-22.8 cm British Museum, London, ME 90920 Photo: ©The Trustees of the British Museum
Two Views: King Pyrrhus and the War on Iraq
Prosthetic legs for wounded American soldiers at the Center for Intrepid rehabilitation gym at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, TX, Aug. 7, 2012. (JOHN MOORE/GETTY IMAGES)
January/February 2005 Postcard
Downloadable PDF (388 KB)
Cut and paste html (for emailing your Sen. or Rep.:
DEAR SENATOR:
With the U.S. presidential election and the recent death of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat still fresh in many people’s minds, talk of elections in Palestine is heating up. On Nov. 2, Americans drove to their local schools, churches, community centers and fire departments to choose their next president.
Due to Israel’s military occupation of their land, it is unlikely that Palestinians will be afforded the same freedom of movement to democratically elect their next leader. As long as the Israeli army occupies the West Bank and controls the Gaza Strip, Palestinians say it is impossible for them to hold free, fair and transparent elections.
Israeli roadblocks and checkpoints impede campaigning—an essential part of any election, as you are well aware—and many significant Palestinian leaders remain in Israeli prisons, including Marwan Barghouti, who was one of the 10 original presidential candidates.
Please work to ensure Palestinians are given a chance to truly pick their next leader, and insist that Israel facilitate the process by removing all roadblocks and checkpoints.
FROM:
Address:
City, State, Zip:
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Israeli border police arrest Bassam al-Salhi, a People’s Party candidate in the Palestinian elections, as he tries to enter Jerusalem (AFP photo/Source People’s Party).
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In November talks with Israeli officials in Jerusalem regarding the Jan. 9 Palestinian election, Secretary of State Colin Powell said, “We want to do everything we can, working together, to see that these elections are held in a peaceful way and give the Palestinian people a new opportunity to move forward. The terror must be ended; the violence must be ended.”
To achieve balance in our Middle East policy, the secretary of state—and, by extension, the U.S.—must put equal emphasis on ending Israel’s military occupation, and the brutality that accompanies it, as on ending Palestinian violence.
The U.S. and Israel must accept the leader Palestinians elect and establish a relationship based on honesty and mutual respect. As Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom recently said, it is in Israel’s interest to see the Palestinian elections go forward, as they could pave the way for a new leadership “with whom we can sit down.” An equitable and lasting peace can never be achieved as long as Palestinian leaders are denied a place at the table.
