[Peace-discuss] Letter to Durbin re AIPAC

[David Green]

If you would like to sign on to this letter, please
e-mail martha at martinreese.com in Oak Park.

David Green



Dear Friends: 
We’re writing to ask your help in “priming the pump”
for the “open letter” below. We’d be grateful if you’d
agree to sign your name and city of residence to this
letter. After we have a mid-sized list of names, we’ll
circulate this more broadly to generate many more
signatures (hopefully, hundreds) and calls to Durbin’s
office. At that point, if you’re willing, we’ll ask
your help in distributing the letter through your
networks to help the project along.  By the way, we
are very interested in generating names outside the
Chicago area! Thanks for your assistance.

Martha Reese
martha at martinreese.com
* * *

April 11, 2005

Dear Senator Durbin:

We, your constituents, join together in expressing our
concern over your Sunday, April 10 Chicago appearance
in partnership with AIPAC, the American Israel Public
Affairs Committee. The event, titled "The Road to
Capitol Hill:?Your Partnership with AIPAC and Congress
Makes?a Difference to Israel," reflects support of an
organization we believe works against a balanced US
policy in the Middle East and against the necessary
conditions for peaceful coexistence between
Palestinians and Israelis based on
internationally-recognized principles of human rights
and law.

We who have been working with other Americans,
Israelis, and Palestinians here in the US and in the
Middle East to create a just peace are extremely
concerned about AIPAC's promotion on Capitol Hill of a
damaging, short-sighted, and profoundly unbalanced
agenda:

--AIPAC fails to condemn Israeli settlement building
and expansion.

--AIPAC fails to condemn demolition of Palestinian
homes and agricultural tracts. 

--AIPAC works against restrictions that would tie US
aid to Israel to fulfilment of stated US goals, such
as halting settlement construction.

--AIPAC fails to condemn Israeli breaches of
international law, such as land expropriation,
assassination, and excessive use of force against
civilians.

--AIPAC promotes the selective application of UN
resolutions, rejecting only those which condemn
Israeli policy.

--In supporting the separation barrier--built on
Palestinian land-- AIPAC works to neutralize judgments
by the international legal bodies that exist for
conflict resolution through nonviolent means.

--AIPAC condemns Syria's occupation of Lebanon, but
not Israel's occupation of the Golan Heights, East
Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza which--unlike
Syria's occupation--has involved territorial
annexation, population transfer, destruction of
private property and civil infrastructure, physical
and economic oppression of the local population,
devastating movement restrictions, and thousands of
deaths and disabling injuries.

--AIPAC selectively condemns Palestinian attacks on
Israeli civilians, but not attacks by Israel on
Palestinian civilians.

As our elected Senator, we urge you to work in
Congress for a balanced US policy toward Palestinians
and Israelis. We are unanimous in believing that the
AIPAC agenda works against a just resolution to the
conflict and creates conditions for mistrust and
enmity between Palestinians and Israelis. We believe
that your participation in events such as the one
occurring on April 10 create the perception that you
are working in partnership with AIPAC to advance the
damaging and unbalanced AIPAC agenda described above.

Sincerely yours,

Martha Reese--River Forest, IL
Michael Levin--Berwyn, IL
David Green--Champaign, IL 
Eric Ruder--Chicago, IL
Benjamin Doherty--Chicago, IL
Caren Levy VanSlyke--Oak Park, IL
Janet Settle--Oak Park, IL
Kevin Clark—Chicago, IL
Emily Hauser—Oak Park, IL
Rebekah Levin--Oak Park, IL