Note: forwarded message attached.
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--- Begin Message --- December 11, 2001
Dear President Bush,
On the three month anniversary of the atrocious attacks on innocent
civilians in New York,Washington and Pennsylvania, I am sadly writing to you
to express my utter outrage. On this solemn day of remembrance, I was deeply
saddened and extremely shocked to see you as you placed your hand over your
heart in front of an Israeli flag. Even when you made your remarks to the
American people, you were flanked by an Israeli flag. Where is the American
flag, Sir? I did not see one.
You see, Sir, I am a Palestinian American. An American by birth, a
Palestinian by birth as well. My father has lived his entire adult life in
exile. Coming here in 1947 to receive a degree at Georgetown College in
Texas, only to find one year later, he was a man without a country, a man
without a home. I am an Arab American who strongly opposes United States
policies in the Middle East, in particular, United States policy toward
Israel.
Can you even imagine my dismay and outrage at the scene I just witnessed?
Sir, respectfully, I think you cannot. For over 14 months now we have
witness the decimation of our Palestinian brothers and sister, cousins and
uncles, nieces and nephews over and over again. My family in Nablus was
driven out of their homes last week to due to the ongoing illegal occupation
of the Palestine. Once again, they find themselves homeless, once again,
they find themselves living with the worst kind of humiliation and fear a
human being can imagine; as we, the families, sit here miles away,grinding
our teeth, unable to sleep, waiting for that fateful phone call which will
tell us their beautiful constructive lives have been taken by Israeli
forces; as they continue to bombard civilian targets; yesterday killing two
boys, one 13 and on 3.
My name has been in the news lately: Beit Rima and Anabta. You might have
heard of them. These are the lovely and pastoral villages of my ancestors,
they are the roots of my tree; whose roots have been bulldozed and whose
villages have had the blood of innocents running through the streets.
Tell me Mr. President how am I to reconcile these images with my sense of
justice , equality, and the basic human values that have shaped my country,
the United States of America? The values we claim to uphold and cherish ,
the basic human values our country purports to be upholding in our "war
against terrorism"? I tell you it is quite impossible. Quite impossible for
me to believe, as we continue to give billions of dollars in military aid to
an Apartheid state whose methods include racist ethnic cleansing, summary
execution, collective punishment and denial of basic civil rights to all of
its citizens. Quite impossible to believe, as we give the green light to
Prime Minister Sharon, a charged and wanted war criminal, to continue its
policy against innocent human beings. Even harder to believe , much less
stomach, as I see my President, honoring the lives of thousands of innocent
men, woman and children as you stand before an Israeli flag and sing my
National Anthem! This is preposterous, simply unimaginable.
Sir, as I explained to you, I am an American, I am a Palestinian, as a
matter of fact I am a Texan. But today, Mr. President, I feel I have no
country, no home, no roots. All that we have come to see as American is
embodied, as you must well know, in the Texan identity: hard work, family
cohesiveness, freedom to protect one's family and home and freedom by the
right to bear arms and such. Texas, I used to think was an amazing microcosm
of the values that Americans hold so dear. How can I think this as the
microscope reveals a completely separate reality. A country who stands by
viscous murderers, whose fervent religious, xenophobic and hegemonic
ideologies have quite literally, clearly and ultimately destabilized the
entire world and whose policies spurred the kind of anger and rage around
the Muslim world, the consequences of which we saw played out in such
graphic detail three months ago today.
It is sad day for me Mr.President, as an American, as I think back on the
horrific scenes that unfolded before our eyes on September 11. It is even
more melancholy, more hard to bear,that we Palestinians have and continue to
witness scenes of mass carnage and despair,of death and destruction played
out before our eyes over and over, for 53 years and 15 months; as we monitor
the ongoing suffering of our towns and villages in Palestine.
Mr.President, I share your grief as I think of those innocent people whose
lives were lost in such a brutal fashion. What is truly sad, given what I
saw today, you do not share my grief, not only do you not share it, you show
a callous and cold disregard for the pain we Palestinians feel every single
moment of every waking hour.
Mr. President God Bless America and God have Mercy on Palestine and its
amazing people, we will need his mercy for surely you have none, as you
stand before an Israeli flag and sing my National Anthem.
With Sadness and Disgust,
Rima Anabtawi,M.A.
PO Box 932
Great Barrington,MA 01230
USA
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