Joint NGO CEO letter on Palestine to Secretary Blinken and Ambassador Power
New York, NY, May 20, 2021 — Dear Secretary Blinken and Administrator Power:
We, the undersigned Chief Executives of 12 humanitarian organizations, are writing to urgently appeal for the U.S. to step up its actions in achieving an immediate and lasting cessation of hostilities between Israel and Palestinian armed groups and in allowing unfettered and safe humanitarian access to provide life-saving relief to communities in need. We are alarmed by the large loss of civilian life and destruction in the past weeks as the violence continues with no signs of abating. Once the hostilities have subsided, it is imperative to address the root causes of the conflict, otherwise this repetitive cycle of violence and loss of civilian lives will continue to fester.
At the time of writing, 230 people, including 65 children, have been killed, with 1,710 injured, in the Gaza Strip. Another 25 people have been killed, with 6,309 injured, in the West Bank. In addition, 12 people have been killed in Israel. These deaths were all preventable.
The situation in Gaza is especially acute. Shelters to hide against attacks do not exist and people cannot leave Gaza to seek refuge elsewhere. The destruction of infrastructure–including the homes of several of our own staff –and the drastic rise of civilian casualties have pushed Gaza beyond breaking point. All this is occurring against the backdrop of an unabated Covid-19 pandemic with only 38,000 Palestinians in Gaza vaccinated, with testing clinics and laboratories badly damaged in bombing. In the background of this, the decades-long erosion of basic services, employment opportunities and social safety nets had led to deep poverty and economic crisis. For example, if no fuel enters Gaza immediately, its only power plant will stop functioning, jeopardizing health, water and other essential services, while putting people in the dark. Our staff and the entire humanitarian community stand ready to respond in Gaza, but too often are unable to move because the situation is too dangerous.
In the absence of a lasting cease-fire, we immediately need:
Respect for international humanitarian and human rights law, and assurances that the protection of civilians is paramount. Regular, predictable and comprehensive humanitarian pauses, respected by all parties,across all areas of Gaza to carry out all required life-saving interventions. Humanitarian corridors so that first responders and maintenance crews can carry out life-saving rescue missions and repair essential water, electricity and other infrastructure.
Humanitarian goods, including fuel and materials for repairs to enter, and additional humanitarian personnel need to be granted swift access to Gaza. This includes a rapid and functional coordination mechanism with all parties involved. Assurances that hospitals and clinics treating the wounded andschoolsand other buildings used as shelters for internally displaced persons retain their civilian character and are safe from hostilities.
In the longer-term, we need to address the fact that decades of Israeli military occupation have created an unlivable environment. The ongoing occupation, including a suffocating siege on the Gaza Strip, home demolitions and evictions of Palestinian families in East Jerusalem and the West Bank violate the fundamental rights, freedom and future of Palestinians. Repetitive violent escalations threaten the lives and undermine the human security and human rights of Israelis and Palestinians alike.
Now, more than ever, we need U.S. leadership to bring the parties together to agree to end the hostilities and urgently reach a ceasefire. The Biden administration has emphasized its commitment to a human rights-centered U.S. foreign policy. As such, we look to you to publicly and unequivocally speak out against violations of international humanitarian law and human rights and engage with all parties directly.
Sincerely yours,
David Miliband President and Chief Executive Officer International Rescue Committee
Charles Owubah Chief Executive Officer Action Against Hunger USA
Michelle Nunn President and Chief Executive Officer CARE
Hany Saqr Chief Executive Officer Life for Relief and Development
Ann Graber Hershberger Executive Director Mennonite Central Committee U.S.
Jan Egeland Secretary General Norwegian Refugee Council
Sean Carroll President and Chief Executive Officer American Near East Refugee Aid
David Weiss Chief Executive Officer Global Communities
Sharif Aly Chief Executive Officer Islamic Relief USA
Aimee Shalan Chief Executive Officer Medical Aid for Palestinians
Tjada D'Oyen McKenna
Chief Executive Officer Mercy Corps
Abby Maxman President and Chief Executive Officer Oxfam America
brooklyn13, To my eyes it's a fair map. Guess if you go back far enough similar ones could be created for most every country in the world. I could ask: What's your point.
Yet your point looks clear. It's disappointing as, by memory, our politics muchly agree on most major things. Now you attempt to attack my simply reporting Israel's apartheid-like practices by besmirching my posting history. By suggesting i'm unfair to Israel while clean skinning Australia because i haven't posted every negative about the invasion of Australia that you could come up with. Silly. I expect you can see the illogicality in it. You are aware enough to understand. I think.
Lastly on that, i have neither need nor obligation to justify my posting history to you, so i won't. Just as you have made it pertinent repeat: Exploitation, injustice, corruption, land grabs et al worldwide have been been part of my bag for over a decade. You are right in that not every single injustice has been covered. My apology for that, but this board is after all sited in the USA, and is muchly a board of US politics. F6 desired to keep it a bit wider and we like to show appreciation to his legacy.
Consider, in consciously attempting to be balanced i have posted more negatives about Australia than you have posted negatives about any country in the world. I would guess.
So, you defend Israel all you want to, but leave the simpleminded agenda you have set yourself on. It is off-track. Is is any more than nonsensical whataboutism? I don't think so. Enough on that, eh.
So now what. Ok ... You enjoy asking questions, here is one for you.
How do you justify your Israel's insistence on maintaining it's essence as a Jewish state. No other country in the world holds such a definitive position. Umm, looks we have been there before too ..
It's a shit fight. You'd think Israel could have backed off on the funeral day [...] Israeli police attack funeral procession for shot journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh "Palestinian family threatens to burn Sheikh Jarrah home in eviction standoff [...] Darn right apartheid state fit then for Israel then. Still does.. Israel & the Palestinians https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=168566962 - Riots Shatter Veneer of Coexistence in Israel’s Mixed Towns "A House Divided: A Palestinian, a Settler and the Struggle for East Jerusalem "Israel's ethnic cleansing - The untold story of Sheikh Jarrah" https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=165220443 - Is Judaism an ethnicity? A race? A nationality? Trump signs an order and provokes an identity crisis. [...] It’s a religion, yes — but then again, many who identify as Jews aren’t religious. It’s passed down from parents to children and bears recognizable genetic characteristics — but then again, Jews come in all colors and racial backgrounds.
Ethnicity? Nationality? Faith? Culture? Heritage? Even Jews don’t agree on just what Judaism is. And President Trump has thrown that eternal question into sharp relief by signing an executive order meant to strengthen protections against anti-Semitism on college campuses, where the debate over Israel and Palestinian rights has grown increasingly toxic in recent years. [...] Trump’s order, which he signed at a White House Hanukkah party last week, says anti-Semitism is punishable under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act — a clause that deals only with race, ethnicity and nationality, not discrimination on the basis of religion. The order says Jews can be considered to have been targeted on the basis of their nationality or race as Jews.
Jewish Americans, who are presumably the beneficiaries, are deeply torn about what it all means. [...] Calling Judaism a racial or ethnic identity inappropriately erases Jews of color, some say. And suggesting that the federal government considers Judaism to be a nationality or ethnicity can add to confusion that Jews already face in their schools and workplaces.
“I’m worried now that the incorrect belief will be that I’m Israeli or that I’ve even been to Israel,” said Zoe Terner, 19, a leader in the Reform movement and a student at the University of Florida in Gainesville. “My family’s from Russia, I’m pretty sure.” (She said she doesn’t see Russian as her nationality, either — nor Austrian, another place from which her relatives fled, facing religious persecution — but just American, based on the place where her family found safety.) https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=164666123 July 6, 2022 - https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=169330625
I could have said then, have you asked the Palestinians about that? The Jordanians? Am thinking that thought was/is rather presumptuous of you.
Back to today
Jordan's king says no stability in region without Palestinian state
By Suleiman Al-Khalidi October 12, 20231:50 AM GMT+11Updated 5 hours ago
IMAGE [1/2]Jordan's King Abdullah II speaks at the opening of a new parliamentary session in Amman, Jordan October 11, 2023. Royal Hashemite Court/Handout via Reuters Acquire Licensing Rights
AMMAN, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Jordan's King Abdullah said on Wednesday no peace was possible in the Middle East without the emergence of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.
The latest violence - which broke out when Hamas militants assaulted Israel at the weekend - showed the region would not "enjoy stability, security or peace" without a sovereign Palestinian state on land that Israel had captured in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, he said.
A two-state solution was the only option, the monarch told deputies in a speech at the opening of a new parliamentary session.
"Our region will never be secure nor stable without achieving just and comprehensive peace on the basis of the two-state solution," the monarch said.
A two-state solution has long been the bedrock of international peacemaking efforts, but the process has been moribund for years and the possibility of it happening has dimmed even before the renewed bloodshed.
King Abdullah has since the start of the latest conflict been engaged in a flurry of diplomatic efforts with Western and regional leaders urging swift action to de-escalate the situation, officials say.
Officials said the monarch, whom U.S. President Joe Biden called, will voice the kingdom's concerns with U.S Secretary of State Antony Blinken when he arrives in Amman.
Blinken first plans to visit Israel, where he was heading to later on Wednesday. read more
With a large percentage of Jordan’s population made up of Palestinians, and Jordan sharing a border with the West Bank, which the Palestinians hope will be part of their own state together with East Jerusalem and Gaza, its position is sensitive.
"A Palestinian independent and sovereign state should be on June 4th, 1967 lines, with East Jerusalem as its capital, and so that the cycles of killing, whose ultimate victims are innocent civilians, end," King Abdullah said.
Amman lost the West Bank including East Jerusalem to Israel during the 1967 war. Jordan's peace treaty with Israel is widely unpopular among many citizens who see normalisation as a sellout of the rights of their Palestinian brethren.
The outpouring of anger against Israel also fuelled a large rally on Tuesday in downtown Amman, where several thousand protesters chanted slogans in support of Hamas and demanded the government close the Israeli embassy in Amman and scrap the peace treaty.
The Israeli embassy, where protesters gather daily, has long been a flashpoint of anti-Israel protests at times of turmoil in the Palestinian territories.
Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Editing by Alison Williams and Angus MacSwan
•The West Bank and Gaza go to the Palestinians; •Large Israeli settlements adjacent to Israel go to Israel in exchange for an equal slice of land; •The Old City of Jerusalem is open to all faiths and nationalities, under international supervision; •Arab refugees from 1948 and 1967 get monetary restitution but resettlement limited to the West Bank; • Palestinians recognize Israel and agree to halt all attacks against it; •Cooperation is pledged between both sides on patrolling Jordan Valley and Gaza borders. https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=54033462
Looks fair to me. What do you think? Maybe it wouldn't do as Israel still would never be safe. And without a Palestinian state how safe is Israel?
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