Here's a letter which is not in agreement with your biased lies:
December 20, 2000
The Honorable Elliott Abrams Chairman United States Commission on International Religious Freedom 800 N. Capitol Street, N.S., Suite 790 Washington, D.C. 20002
Dear Mr. Abrams:
We read with great interest the recent letter from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. We were dismayed to find that, while ostensibly calling for the protection of religious rights and holy sites, the substance of your letter seems to endorse the denial of these very rights by Israel against Palestinians living under its occupation.
Your letter in effect supports Israel's move in denying access of most of the Palestinian population of the West Bank to their holy places in Occupied East Jerusalem, implying that the Israeli decision to impose "closure" was a necessary response to "security concerns." It is disgraceful that a Commission dedicated to upholding religious freedom would seek to legitimize the denial of religious rights.
One of the most striking omissions in your letter is the failure to acknowledge that the events to which you refer are taking place in the context of what is, according to the United Nations Security Council, the only ongoing belligerent military occupation in the world. The invocation of Israeli "security concerns" in an area in which it is, as the Security Council reiterated in Resolution 1322 on Oct. 7, the Occupying Power, as a rationalization for the withholding of religious rights from civilians living under occupation is legally and morally unsustainable. Rather than agreeing to end its occupation of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza Strip as required by numerous UN Security Council Resolutions and international law, Israel is using its policy of "closure" and restricting access to Jerusalem and the holy sites as a tactic of collective punishment against Palestinians. Such collective punishment measures are strictly forbidden by the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Moreover, you seem unaware that while since 1991 Israel has restricted many Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank from access to holy places in Occupied East Jerusalem, for all of the 33 years of Israeli occupation, the Palestinians of Occupied Gaza have had no access to Jerusalem at all. One of the basic provisions of the Interim Accord, signed in 1993 and expired in 1998, was for Israel to provide safe passage between Gaza and the West Bank/East Jerusalem so that the 800,000 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly Muslims, would finally have access once again to the Haram Al-Sharif and other holy sites in Jerusalem. Israel has steadfastly refused to implement this, along with many other of its commitments under various peace agreements, which means that the Palestinians from Gaza remain completely cut off from these holy places. Now the population of the West Bank is experiencing the same denial of their rights. To rationalize all of these assaults on religious freedom as justified by "security concerns" is, in effect, to endorse the occupation and place the convenience of the occupiers over the rights of the occupied. During one of her recent trips to the Occupied Territories, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson correctly noted that "You cannot separate the human rights situation from the reality of occupation...the daily acts of discrimination, inequality, humiliation, powerlessness of occupation." This applies as much to religious freedoms as to any other form of human rights.
These unjustifiable restrictions affect both Muslim and Christian Palestinians. Faisal Husseini, the senior Palestinian official in Jerusalem, observed that "First Muslims and Christians are prevented from entering Jerusalem because of the Israeli blockade on the city, then Muslims allowed into the Old City are denied access to the Noble Sanctuary." Atallah Hannah of the Greek Orthodox Church has declared that "the suffering of Muslims is the same for the Christians, who have trouble reaching the Old City and visiting the Church of the Holy Sepulchre." On November 7, the Vatican issued a statement underscoring the need to guarantee adherents of all faiths free access to Jerusalem's holy sites, a call Israel continues to refuse to heed.
Furthermore, your letter seems oblivious to the massive violence against Palestinian civilians and civilian targets by Israeli occupation forces that has characterized the past few weeks, and that almost all of those killed have been Palestinians, including almost 100 children. Commissioner Robinson explicitly called on Israel to apply the "principle of proportionality" and expressed her concern for the lack of protection offered to Palestinians, who have been subject to ongoing attacks by Israeli soldiers and Jewish settlers. This observation is supported by the findings and opinions of the UN Security Council and Human Rights Commission, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, B'tselem, and all other impartial observers and human rights advocates. Your letter, however, ignores these well- documented accounts and instead specifically condemns only anti-Jewish actions, with no mention of the excessive and indiscriminate violence to which Palestinian civilians have been subjected. You also fail to note the numerousanti-Arab and anti-Muslim statements by prominent political, religious and media figures in many western nations, especially the United States, prompted by the same events.
The American Committee on Jerusalem looks forward to receiving a response to this and our two previous letters (attached). All of the concerns expressed in these letters remain urgent and unaddressed. We resubmit our request to meet with representatives of the Commission in order to discuss the current situation and necessary courses of action.
