This Must End!

An open letter to President-Elect Barack Obama by Professor David Lloyd, University of Southern California on behalf of 'Teachers Against Occupation', with almost 1000 signatories.

You have not hesitated to identify your children with Israeli children,living in fear of attack. But imagine, for a moment, that your daughters arePalestinian and live in Gaza. How would you react then?

Picture their world.

They are crammed with one and a half million others in a sliver of landroughly twice the size of Washington D.C. Many are refugees displaced from theirancestral lands by Israeli settlers. Drinking water is scarce. Israel candisrupt the supply of electricity to Gaza at will and its people often live indarkness for days on end. Pumping stations have been destroyed. Sewage goesuntreated.

Nor is there a means of escape. Israel controls Gaza's airspace, maritimeaccess and most of its land border. Its punishing military blockade severelycurtails the movement of food, money, fuel, medicines, and humanitarian aid.Goods must be smuggled through tunnels.

Children under the age of 14 make up half of Gaza's population. An alarmingnumber suffer from anaemia chronic malnutrition, stunted growth, and anxietydisorders. They lack pens and paper, books and other educational materials. Manyare so traumatized by the Israeli blockade and a life leached of hope that theyreport having lost the will to live.

The local economy is in tatters. There are no jobs. But no Palestinian mayleave Gaza for employment, education or even medical attention, without Israel'spermission.

And what if your daughters lived instead in the Occupied Territories of theWest Bank? Hundreds of checkpoints limit movement, lands are arbitrarily seizedfor illegal Jewish settlements, political leaders are summarily jailed. A bleakwall, hundreds of miles long, snakes across Palestinian land, separatingvillagers from their fields, annexing more and more of their land into Israel.All too often, children cannot reach their schools, students cannot get to theiruniversities, and the sick cannot make it to hospitals on time. Houses aredemolished by the Israeli Defence Forces without right of appeal. Olive grovesare uprooted, livelihoods destroyed.

All these acts in Gaza and the West Bank are illegal under international lawand an outrage to humanitarian sentiments everywhere. Israel has consistentlydefied UN resolutions and world public opinion, which have repeatedly calledupon it to end the occupation, dismantle the illegal settlements on Palestinianterritory, and to negotiate in good faith towards the establishment of a viablePalestinian state.

Why does the US, virtually alone in the world, condone and underwrite suchpalpable injustice? Why does it support and fund Israeli aggression instead ofcommitting itself to a fair negotiation?

This must end. Now is the moment for courage. Now is the moment to heed theteachings of that "young preacher from Georgia" you so admire. Now isthe moment to decisively turn away from a policy of violence and unconditionalsupport for Israel.

We call upon you and the United States government to join us in condemningIsraeli aggression and occupation in Palestine, and to work hard for a just andlasting peace in the Middle East.

Without justice there will be no peace.

Respectfully,
Teachers Against Occupation