Letter to the State Dept re Palestine

I try to stay engaged as a citizen.  I try to write my representatives.  They actually usually get back to me (!).  I know there’s a suggestion to flood representative phone-lines with comments, but I believe in the written word, because having received a response it’s on the record.

Today I was inspired to write the State Department. , specifically about Palestine.  I know the State Dept represents the current administration and is only somewhat culpable for the policies that are carried out over seas (the congratulations of blame fall on the chief of the executive branch).  Nonetheless, I wrote.  I wrote

Dear State Department,

I write to you with the reminder that the policies that are being pursued in the Middle East, especially with regards to financial cuts the UNRWA and the unilateral negotiations, is the opposite of peace. To create peace the needs of all parties must be listened to and met with full fairness and an effort to make all people feel that they feel secure in the present and the future.

I encourage you to include the Palestinians as a partner in the negotiations of their future without first making demands of them, and to restore all humanitarian funding for people until such time as they are able and allowed to provide for their own well-being.

Please work to end the siege of Gaza and to restore socio-economic opportunities for all people.

Although the conflict in Israel is based on culture and dispossession, religion plays a part and as an American Jew recognizing the centuries of racism against Jews and other people I find it especially important that my government works to end oppression and to stand for liberty and justice for all both home and abroad.

Thank you for your tireless work,

[NAME]

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