January 29, 2009

Dear President Obama,

I read in the paper today that George Mitchell has made some strong comments about Gazans' use of tunnels for "smuggling" purposes. As I have written to you before, and as you well know, these tunnels--while they may in some cases be used to smuggle weapons into Gaza--these tunnels are for the most part used to "smuggle" things like food and medical supplies to the citizens of Gaza. Without the access that these tunnels provide to the outside world, Gazans are left with barely any life-sustaining resources in the most populated region in the world.

I ask you once again to not punish or allow the punishment of Palestinians in Gaza to continue just because they are doing what they need to do to survive. The rest of the world knows that Israel is using the tunnels and the "smuggling" as an excuse to continuously kill Palestinians.

The actions taken by Israel in general and within the past few months in particular have been absolutely unthinkable. 600 Palestinian civilians have been killed, with more surely to come. There have been billions of dollars in damages, families have lost their homes, businesses and any other trace of a life they may have had before and young Palestinian children are being traumatized into the hatred towards Israel which has spurred this violence to begin with. Why are we letting this happen? It would be bad enough if we sat back and acted like we didn't know what was going on--I think I would prefer that to actually supporting the proprietors of this violence.

I know that you and your administration, with the appointment of George Mitchell, are working towards a resolution but I am already skeptical--will this resolution be unbiased? Will it be skewed in Israel's favor, once again?

I ask you to please not let this happen. History and the majority of the world will thank you for it.

Sincerely,

Davina Abujudeh