Largely omitted from the mainstream media during the last three weeks, amidst the growing U.S. support for Sharon's actions in the West Bank, are the voices of Jewish dissent. As Jewish professors at the College, and as U.S. citizens, we are writing to voice our dissent-to express our horror and outrage at Israel's ongoing attack on the Palestinian people and the complicity of the Bush administration in these acts of violence and destruction. Sharon has taken advantage of the U.S.'s war on Al Qaeda to argue that Israel and the U.S. are engaged in a common war on terrorism. We reject this claim, because in our view it strategically obscures the fact that Palestinians are fighting for their very survival against a heavily-armed military.
In the past three weeks, the Israeli army has placed entire Palestinian towns and cities under siege. In many locations, electricity and water supplies have been cut off and a curfew has prevented families from replenishing supplies of food and medicine. The laws of war, as codified in the Fourth Geneva Convention, have been systematically violated as civilian populations have been used by the army as human shields. Ill and injured people have been denied access to medical facilities and families have been forbidden to bury their dead. At the same time, many Palestinian public institutions have been systematically vandalized by the Israeli army-their facilities and materials ransacked and destroyed in the course of the Israeli incursion. As many human rights organizations have claimed, we are witnessing a humanitarian crisis of enormous destructive impact on the Palestinian people and its institutions.
We condemn all acts of violence and terror and mourn Israeli and Palestinian victims alike. But we argue that the fundamental issue pitting Palestinians against Israelis is the 35 year Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. There will be no peace or security for either people until Israel completely evacuates its settlements in Palestinian territories, ends its military occupation and returns to its pre-1967 borders, and until the military, political, economic and psychic terror against Palestinian civilians ends.
Professors Judith Frank,
Deborah Gewertz,
Andrew Parker,
Austin Sarat,
and Rebecca Stein