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The heart of the matter
By Sister Miriam Ward, Times Argus, Rutland Herald, St.Albans Messenger and Caledonian-Record 5/31 - 6/6/2007
The on-going Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the urgent concern of Middle East leaders according to Senator Leahy and Representative Welch, reporting from Jerusalem. (“Leahy, Welch, on overseas trip, say Iraq war skewing Mideast priorities,” June 1)I applaud Senator Leahy and Representative Welch for going to the Mideast. In my three-week visit to the West Bank in May, I too discerned a sense of despairing hopelessness and apathy. Regretfully the delegation could not meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. But they saw the visible devastation caused by the Wall on Palestinian lands, creating apartheid-like Bantustans. As Shulamit Aloni, former member of the Knessest, said recently, “Forty years of occupation has turned every Palestinian village into a detention camp. We are exercising apartheid.” Palestinians say, “We are living in a prison.”This week marks 40 years of Israeli occupation of Palestine. For thirty-six of those years I have witnessed the strangulation of Palestinian cultural, political, economic, religious, and social life. Each year it gets worse. Long before the Iraq war got center stage, many of us tried to point out what this congressional delegation heard: The Palestinian/Israeli conflict is the core issue, admittedly within the regional context. For too long opponents used “Arab/Israeli,” conflict, deflecting from the heart of the matter. They did not want to hear the word “Palestinian.” But it is Palestinians who are the occupied.The situation has reached a critical stage, but there is a window of opportunity: the Arab Peace Initiative. It calls for Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 borders with minor adjustments, and acceptance of Israel within the Middle East community of nations. This plan was endorsed by 300 Israeli, Palestinian and international women at the May 13th International Women’s Commission conference in Jerusalem.Senator Leahy and Representative Welch are on target: our Mideast priorities are skewed. We eagerly await their efforts in Congress to put things right.
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