Par: American Friends Service Committee, Posté le: May 15 09

Regions: Israel, Palestine, United States

Issues: Humanitarian

Tags: action, afsc, Congress, Israel, palestine, peace, president obama

[Rachael Kamel is a senior researcher for the AFSC, based in Philadelphia]

There is, perhaps, no issue in American life that is as sorely contested as Israel and Palestine. This Friday, May 15, captures the gulf of understanding in its very naming.  While the State of Israel and its supporters around the world celebrate Israel’s Independence Day each spring, for the still-stateless Palestinians, the same occasion is known as the nakba or catastrophe, the painful anniversary of the exiling of 750,000 Palestinians and the beginning of the longest-enduring refugee problem in the world.

AFSC’s latest offering on the topic is a 2-minute video, Israel-Palestine: A Land in Fragments. Designed as a viral video, this production is an organizing tool for people in the USA whose desire for peace has prompted them to take a critical look at the policies of their own government.  As you look at the information we present, we hope you will judge for yourselves whether US policies help move things in the direction of peace:

Now take action:

- send a letter to Congress

- forward this video to your own friends and networks, and ask them to join you in taking action

AFSC’s roots with this issue are deep indeed.  We were first asked to help Palestinian refugees by the United Nations in 1949, and have maintained our presence in the region almost continuously since then.  Our work in the United States, meanwhile, as advocates for peace and nonviolence in Israel-Palestine dates back to the early 1970s.  We have been by the side of both peoples through many tragic disappointments — and have seen their unquenchable longing for peace and a livable life endure despite these setbacks.

Today, when the prospects of peace seem more remote than ever, we believe that the voices of people in the United States have an unprecedented role to play.  In the course of this year, the opinions of voters and taxpayers in this country have undergone a tectonic shift, toward the direction of human rights.  It is time, finally, to call on our government to make human rights central to its policies, and to stop selling arms and fomenting conflict at the cost of so many lives.  The critical mass of public opinion has come together.  Now, with your help, we can make it a reality.