Dear Senator Wyden,
We, the undersigned
organizations, represent Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and secular residents of
the state of Oregon who are struggling for peace in the Middle East through
justice for Palestinians who have been denied equal rights and the right to
self-determination for far too long.
In a recent letter to
constituents, you stated that you are both “pro-Israeli” and
“pro-Palestinian.” Unfortunately, your record shows that you are
neither.
For Israelis who
hope for peace, you have nothing to offer but the status quo, which you back
unequivocally every year by voting for $3 billion in military aid to the
Israeli government, ensuring that it will continue its policies of settlement
expansion, colonization, and authoritarian military rule over millions of
Palestinians. You back the most right-wing government in Israel’s history, and you
gave its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, 37 standing ovations when he
recently addressed Congress. He thanked you by openly supporting Mitt Romney in
the 2012 presidential election.
For Palestinians who hope
for justice, you are silent in the face of Israeli massacres that have
killed hundreds of children and thousands of civilians in attacks that even an
American general has called “absolutely disproportionate,” a
violation of the Geneva Conventions. You are silent in the face of an apartheid
legal system and an apartheid system of roads, housing, and water rights in the
West Bank. You are silent about the more than 50 laws that discriminate against
Palestinians who make up 20 percent of Israel’s population. And you say nothing
about the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes, even though
this right is guaranteed by the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
oppose the influence of Big Money in our elections, but you dutifully support
every resolution proposed by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee
(AIPAC), which has a donor network that rivals Wall Street and the National
Rifle Association. AIPAC supports every action of the Israeli government. It
pushed for the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and it promotes an aggressive military
approach toward Iran. It is a racist, militarist lobby that opposes fundamental
human rights for Palestinians simply because they are not Jewish. AIPAC does
not speak for the Jewish community.