Jews Against the Occupation

 

 

April 5, 2004

 

 

U.S. Representative Major Owens

289 Utica Avenue

Brooklyn, New York 11213

Fax: (718) 735-7143

 

        Re: H.Con.Res. 311

 

Dear Congressman Owens:

 

Last year, some members of our organization, Jews Against the Occupation (JATO-NYC), met with you at the Open House you held in Brooklyn and, subsequently, with one of the aides at your Brooklyn office.  Prior to that, representatives of JATO-NYC and the U.S. Campaign to End the Occupation met with Mr. Norman Meyer in your Washington office to discuss the Rachel Corrie Resolution (H.Con.Res. 111) and issues pertaining to the Israeli Separation Wall.  We were very glad to have the opportunity to present our views to you, and we are now writing in the hopes of following up on previous meetings to discuss some more recent, pressing concerns.

 

As you may recall, JATO-NYC is a group of progressive, secular and religious Jews of all ages and backgrounds who live throughout the New York City area and who advocate for peace through justice for Palestinians and Israelis alike.  We continue to contact your office because many members of JATO-NYC reside in your district (including those listed below) and believe that you share cherished values with them such as concern for the basic human rights of all persons regardless of race, sex, creed, sexual orientation, religion or nationality. 

 

In addition to matters raised previously, we are particularly concerned about, and would like to discuss with you, your co-sponsorship of H.Con.Res. 311 (“Expressing the sense of Congress that the international community should recognize the plight of Jewish refugees from Arab countries and that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East should establish a program for resettling Palestinian refugees”).  Attached please find JATO-NYC’s response to that Resolution, in which we address its misrepresentation both of UNRWA’s activities and of the history of Jewish refugees from Arab countries.

 

In asking to meet with you, we are requesting no more than a short period in which to elaborate these concerns and those of many of your constituents.  You may reach our voice mail at (212) 539-6683. We look forward to meeting with you and thank you in advance for your time.

 

Sincerely,

 

JATO-NYC Political Track

 

 

 TALKING POINTS

 

 

  • Many of the facts stated in the preamble to H.Con.Res. 311 concerning Palestinian textbooks have been taken out of context or are out of date.  Until September 2000, schools in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip used Jordanian and Egyptian textbooks, respectively, which did contain negative references to Israel.  However, during the late 1990s, Palestinian educators developed textbooks to be used by Palestinian children in the Occupied Territories.  These new books have been praised widely by NGOs and Israeli scholars across the political spectrum, including Dr. Ruth Firer of the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace, for their contribution to tolerance, mutual understanding, and peaceful coexistence.  (April 2001 Report, “Third Submission of the PLO to the Sharm El-Sheikh Fact Finding Committee, Excerpts on Incitement”)

 

  • There is no substantial evidence supplied by H.Con.Res.311 or any other source to support claims that UNRWA facilities are being used to store weapons or promote violence.  The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) was set up in 1949, following Ralph Bunche’s report to the U.N., in order to carry out critical Palestinian relief-related activities.  As part of the U.N.’s ongoing efforts to assist Palestinian refugees, UNRWA continues to provide them with food, water, shelter, clothing, health care and other social services, including education, in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.  UNRWA’s efforts have been supported not only by the U.N. but by the European Union.  In response to a recent emergency appeal vis-à-vis the current crisis, Japan donated nearly $6 million to UNRWA, a large portion of which will be used to restore medical and educational services lost due to recent Israel Defense Force violence, curfews, and closures.

 

  • It must be noted that the U.N. played a pivotal role in enabling Israel’s establishment and has subsequently passed numerous resolutions which encourage a peaceful solution in the area, primary among them Security Council Resolution 242 (1967), reaffirmed by Resolution 338 (1973), which call for “achieving a just settlement of the refugee problem.”  The two states which could remove the impasse to a peaceful solution, namely Israel and the U.S., lack the political will to put these expressions of international law into effect.  Providing support to Jewish refugees, whether from Europe or from Arab countries, is supposed to have been the historical role of Israel, and was the very reason behind U.N. support for Israel’s establishment.

 

  • The histories and life circumstances of Jews who left Arab countries and entered Israel after 1948 can hardly be compared to the situation of Palestinian refugees.  Jewish departures from Arab countries were not primarily the result of expulsion, nor was “ethnic cleansing” either a possibility or a reality.  The conditions under which Jews left Arab countries vary by region and historical circumstances.  Indeed, many Jews of Arab descent chose to remain in their native Arab countries, while many others emigrated to Europe and the U.S. as well as to Israel.

 

  • As U.S. taxpayers, we certainly do not want to contribute financially to acts of terrorism.  Likewise, more effort should be made to ensure that U.S. funds do not support Israeli-sponsored state terrorism in the Occupied Territories.  Failing to do so allows for continued violation of both international law (Geneva Conventions and human rights provisions) and U.S. law (Foreign Assistance Act; U.S. Arms Export Control Act).  Furthermore, H.Con.Res 311’s suggestion that Palestinians be “transferred” against their will to neighboring Arab countries is expressly prohibited by the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949.