August 3, 2004
U.S. Senator Charles Schumer
313 Hart Senate Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Fax: 202-228-3027
Re: ICJ verdict on Israeli Separation Wall
Dear Senator Schumer:
Last month, some members of our organization, Jews Against the Occupation (JATO-NYC), met in Washington with your legislative director, Polly Trottenberg, as representatives of the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation. We are very glad to have had the opportunity to present our views to your staff regarding the International Studies in Higher Education Act of 2004 (H.R. 3077 RFS), which we are pleased to learn did not finally pass the Senate, and issues pertaining to the Israeli Separation Wall. We now hope to follow up on that meeting with the following concerns.
As you may recall, JATO-NYC is a group of progressive, secular and religious Jews of all ages and backgrounds throughout the New York City area who advocate for peace through justice for both Palestinians and Israelis. We continue to contact your offices because we believe you share cherished values with us, such as concern for the basic human rights of all persons regardless of race, gender, creed, sexual orientation, religion, or nationality.
It has recently come to our attention that you actively support Israeli construction of the Separation Wall throughout the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and that you intend to continue contesting the International Court of Justice's (ICJ) verdict which condemns it. In the spirit of our recent meeting with your staff in Washington, we are writing to request that you reconsider your stand on the ICJ verdict and, more generally, the Separation Wall itself.
It is well proven that the Israeli Separation Wall will not bring security to Israel, as is claimed by the Wall's proponents. Instead it exacerbates the climate of hostility between Israel and its neighbors. The Separation Wall trespasses the 1967 Israeli-Palestinian borders, dividing communities and destroying access to vital agricultural and other economic resources. According to both Amnesty International and the World Bank, the Wall has increased poverty, intensified ethnic divisions, and further denied Palestinians political viability. Rather than increasing security, the Separation Wall is causing greater danger for Israelis and greater hardships for Palestinians than have been suffered to date under Israeli Occupation, and it may actually provoke rather than quell violence in the region.
Contrary to claims made by the Separation Wall’s supporters, the ICJ's ruling is not anti-Semitic, nor is it anti-Israel; rather, it promotes a just resolution to the Israel-Palestine conflict that benefits everyone in the region, including Palestinians and Israelis. The ICJ has made it clear that the responsibility of the world community is to strengthen the Middle East by, inter alia, demanding political transformation on the part of Israel. Most important in this regard is the ICJ's insistence that Israel adhere to international law. Currently the State of Israel is in violation of close to 70 U.N. resolutions. The Separation Wall furthers Israel's contravention of several of those resolutions, in turn further delegitimizing an already compromised Israeli state in the eyes of the international community.
A viable and lasting Israeli-Palestinian peace cannot be reached under these circumstances, nor, in the end, can the U.S. ever hope to regain the respect of the international community by supporting such an illegal project. If the U.S. were truly supportive of Israel, on the other hand--and if, as Israeli Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has himself said, the Wall can be moved at any time--the U.S. should, instead of condoning the Wall, put pressure on Israel to move it back onto Israeli territory or, better yet, to dismantle it altogether and return to the negotiating table.
With these points in mind, we hope that you will reconsider your opposition to the ICJ verdict. By continuing to oppose the verdict, you are really only supporting the expropriation of Palestinian lands, not the enforcement of Israeli or Palestinian security. In addition, you place your office in alignment with the unilateralism of the Bush administration rather than challenging it through a gesture of international, multilateral approach to the Middle East crisis.
We are happy to meet with you to discuss this matter. We would ask for no more than a short period in which to elaborate our concerns and those of many of your constituents over this troubling resolution. 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 and attention.
Sincerely,
JATO-NYC Elected Officials Committee