MidWest Muslims and Jews Condemn the Israeli Occupation and All Violence against Civilians in the Middle East, Call for Peace, Human Rights, and Democracy in the Region
The ongoing conflict between the Israeli occupation army and the Palestinian people has inflicted tremendous pain and casualties on both Palestinian and Israeli civilians.
Israel's brutal occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem since 1967, which lies at the heart of this continuing conflict, must be ended for true peace and reconciliation between Arabs and Israelis, Muslims and Jews.
As Muslims and Jews committed to peace and justice in the region for all of its peoples, we condemn violence, especially that directed against civilians.
The Israeli army must stop its siege of Palestinian villages, shelling of densely inhabited neighborhoods with US-supplied weaponry, shooting of demonstrators, and assasinations, along with housing demolitions and settlement activity.
Palestinians must also end suicide bombings and attacks on Israeli civilians.
We expect that there be one standard in opposing terrorism, with neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians allowed to harm civilians or their property.
The Islamic Jihad and Hamas attacks on buses, a pizza parlor, and shopping malls, killing and wounding innocent Israelis profane the trials and sufferings of the many Palestinians struggling for an end to the Israeli occupation and a just peace with Israeli citizens.
The suicide bombers create more innocent victims, when the goal of the Palestinian people is to attain justice by ending the very practices which have made them victims.
The acts of the bombers only reinforce the policies [of] those wishing endless enmity between Israelis and Palestinians.
Prime Minister Sharon has cited the suicide bombings as reasons to continue the illegal Israeli occupation and save his neo-colonial dream of a "Greater Israel" from the threat of an Israeli-Palestinian peace.
We urge Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims around the world to demand that the groups responsible for these murders cease such attacks.
Palestinians have a right to resist military occupation; this right, however, never excuses violence against Israeli civilians and those not directly involved in attacks against Palestinians.
We also urge Israelis and Jews around the world to use their moral and political resources to effect an end to Israel's occupation of Palestinian lands.
The consequences of the occupation include not only the death, suffering, dispossession, and humiliation of the Palestinians, but also death, misery, and a life of perpetual insecurity for the Israelis.
Since the signing of the Declaration of Principles by Israel and the Palestinian Authority, Israel has escalated its military occupation of Palestinian lands into a drive to subjugate the Palestinians into tightly controlled "Bantustans.”
Throughout the Oslo "Peace Process," Israel has confiscated ever more Palestinian land; built Israeli-controlled bypass roads that break the territorial contiguity of the future Palestinian state; doubled the number of illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank; severed Palestinians' access to their holy sites in Bethlehem and Jerusalem; attacked, using weapons such as hellfire missiles and live ammunition, unarmed Palestinian men, women, and children; and imposed a gruesome siege on Palestinian towns.
The destruction of Palestinian civil society and democratic institutions by Israel and elements of the Palestinian Authority has aroused frustration and indignation amongst the Palestinians.
Regrettably, some Palestinian groups have responded by wreaking the same destruction on Israelis in a blind cycle of vengeance that has killed civilians on both sides, most of whom are eager for a peaceful and just coexistence.
Palestinians and Israelis must free themselves from the prison of this "cycle of violence."
Each people must recognize the legitimate needs of the other.
Midwest Muslims and Jews urge the Israeli and Palestinian leaderships to cease violence against civilians in the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem, and Israel.
The leaders must initiate a new process of negotiation whose outcome brings about the territorial integrity and economic and political sovereignty of both Israel and Palestine;
the security of both Israeli and Palestinian citizens;
a just solution to the plight of Palestinian refugees mandating the implementation of the refugees' right of return or full reparations (UN resolution 194), with due protection for Israeli Jews' requirement for a secure state of their own;
a just and equal sharing of precious resources of the land, such as water and the Holy Old City of Jerusalem, where the respective rights of sovereignty over holy shrines and quarters of the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim faiths must be respected by all sides;
and an end to all "claims and states of belligerency" between both peoples, so long as the above issues are satisified within the boundaries of international law.
We recommend, as the foundation for a permanent peace settlement, that Israel commences withdrawal of all troops and settlements from the lands it occupied during the June 1967 War, declaring its borders on the internationally-recognized 1949 armistice lines.
These actions are mandated by UN Security Council 242 and by the Geneva Conventions to which Israel is a signator.
So long as Israel ends this occupation and meets the demands for reparations, Palestinians and the surrounding Arab states must guarantee an end to attacks and future claims against the state of Israel.
The Palestinian state must not be militarized in a way that would threaten Israeli security.
In return for a full withdrawal from all of the occupied territories, Israel must be granted a truly warm peace with full integration into the broader region.
We hope that such a peace agreement will bring human rights and democracy for all peoples of the Middle East.
The United States government, with its enormous financial and military support for the state of Israel and many of the Arab governments, is in a central position to encourage these values in the region.
Sadly, thus far, the US has given only cynical lip service to these principles, while backing brutal dictatorships and absolute monarchies in the Islamic countries that oppress and impoverish their citizens in much the same way that the Palestinians are oppressed and impoverished.
The September 11 tragedy demonstrated that American civilians also have become victims of these flawed power politics.
Americans of all backgrounds must now insist that their tax dollars finally be used to promote democracy, civilian rule, human rights, social justice, and peace in the broader region.
Midwest Muslims and Jews welcome the new year by urging that American, Israeli, Palestinian and Muslim leaders pursue policies beneficial to all of the civilians of the Middle East.
Sincerely,
Caise Diab, Granada Muslims and Jews for Human Rights
Mujeeb Khan, Muslim Voters of America |
