Genevieve — Diplomatic Press Conf. on Palestine/Israel
Topic(s): Palestine / Israel | Comments Off on Genevieve — Diplomatic Press Conf. on Palestine/IsraelPeck statement:
In May, 80 former American diplomats wrote President Bush to express their
deep concerns that his agreement with PM Sharon would adversely affect the
interests of the US, as well as Israel and the Palestinians. I spent a week
in the West Bank with a delegation from that group last month. We met with
Palestinian citizens, Christian and Muslim religious leaders, a member of
the Knesset, municipal officials, and senior members of the Palestinian
Authority, including President Arafat.
Each of us had considerable experience living in and/or working on the
Middle East, and what we thought was familiarity with the results of nearly
40 years of occupation. We were nonetheless shocked by the extent and the
impact of massive land seizures, tight and unpredictable restrictions on
pedestrian and vehicular travel, and the endless, degrading humiliation
which Palestinians are forced to endure.
We had many opportunities to observe portions of the wall, the fences that
have turned Palestinian population centers into the world’s largest outdoor
prisons, and the shattering effect these ghettoes have already had on
people’s lives – as well as their attitudes. We passed through, or were
turned back from some of, the many checkpoints which impede both
commerce and everyday existence, and are constant reminders of the total,
oppressive control over every inhabitant.
Not only do these policies violate every principle of democracy, human
rights and the rule of law, they sharply undercut the possibilities for a
two-state solution, the basis for every reasonable effort by the parties,
and the international community, to resolve the problem. They therefore
reduce the chances for all the inhabitants of the region to exist in peace
and mutual security, condemning them to prolonged violence and bloodshed.
It was an extremely depressing, deeply disturbing visit, made more
compelling by the realization that even Americans who are reasonably
confident of their knowledge of the situation have no understanding of the
the grim, threatening reality of what is being done in Occupied Palestine –
and the disastrous, almost inevitable and probably global results of the
savagely misguided policies America is supporting and protecting.
—– Original Message —–
From: “Robert Stiver”
To: (my list)
Sent: Friday, July 30, 2004 11:31 PM
Subject: Diplomatic Press Conference Aug. 2
If you don’t get WRMEA releases, this is a good read. I’m not betting that
the press conference will be well attended…or widely (if at all) reported
by the media flacks in our midst.
Aloha; END THE OCCUPATION!!!…Bob
—– Original Message —–
From: “Washington Report on Middle East Affairs”
To:
Sent: Friday, July 30, 2004 6:51 AM
Subject: Diplomatic Press Conference Aug. 2
Media Alert
For Immediate Release
Former U.S. Diplomats
Discuss West Bank Visit,
Meeting With Arafat
Press Conference
12:00 – 1:00 pm
Monday, Aug. 2, 2004
Murrow Room
National Press Club
Washington, DC
A delegation of former U.S. diplomats recently returned from a
week-long visit to the West Bank, hosted by the Palestinian American
Congress. Along with 80 of their colleagues, they had signed a May
letter to President George W. Bush urging that he reconsider American
policy toward Israel/Palestine. Their visit included a two-hour meeting
with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, The signatories previously
had requested a meeting with President Bush and Secretary of State
Colin Powell to discuss their concerns, but received no response from
the White House or State Department.
Members of the delegation included retired Ambassadors Andrew I.
Killgore, Carleton S. Coon and Edward L. Peck; retired foreign service
officers Richard H. Curtiss and Eugene Bird; J. Brady Kiesling, who
resigned prior to the war on Iraq; and Washington Report on Middle East
Affairs editors Delinda C. Hanley and Janet McMahon.
Delegates visited Israel’s separation wall and witnessed its effects on
the lives of ordinary Palestinians; were turned back at Israeli
checkpoints, forcing them to take circuitous routes from Ramallah to
Bethlehem, where they met with city and religious officials; visited a
farmer who, having won a court case protecting his land from settlement
expansion, was now facing confiscation of the same land, allegedly for
military purposes; and visited Hebron—whose historic city center now is
closed off to all but a few hundred radical Jewish settlers—and Jenin,
where they saw new housing being constructed for residents whose homes
were destroyed in Israel’s deadly 2002 incursion.
The members of the delegation are convinced that the situation has
serious implications for future U.S. security, and that if the American
public comes to understand what is happening in the West Bank and Gaza,
it will insist that our government try harder to achieve a fair and
balanced resolution of the present conflict.
For additional information contact the American Educational Trust,
publisher of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs Magazine, PO
Box 53062, Washington, DC 20009-9062; phone (202) 939-6050 or (800)
368-5788; fax (202) 265-4574; e-mail: admin@wrmea.com; Web site
http://www.wrmea.com.