Israel Palestine
Middle East Conflict
Hamas Delivers Peace Letter to
President Obama
The Hamas government in Gaza
reached out to President Obama on the occasion of his
visit to the Middle East, announcing that Hamas was willing to talk to all
parties “on the basis of mutual respect and without preconditions.” CODEPINK
cofounder Medea Benjamin, who carried the letter out
from Gaza, said that the letter represented a significant development and an
effort by Hamas to present a new face to the Western world. “While Osama bin
Laden used the occasion of President Obama’s visit to
deliver a scathing attack, Hamas reached out to a feminist U.S. peace group to
deliver a letter to Obama urging dialogue, mutual
respect and adherence to international law,” said Medea
Benjamin.
In the letter, Hamas urged Obama to visit “our ground Zero” in Gaza and bring about a
“paradigm shift” in the Israel-Palestine conflict based on enlightened world
opinion and international law.
“This is a people who
have just been subjected to a vicious attack that left over 1,300 dead and
thousands wounded, and there is not a word here about armed resistance or
Zionism. They are reaching out and actively seeking a resolution to the
conflict based on the findings of the world’s leading international legal
bodies and human rights organizations from the United Nations and the
International Court of Justice to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
This is a major breakthrough and the U.S. government should take advantage to
begin a dialogue with Hamas.”
The letter was signed by Ahmed Yusef, Deputy Foreign Minister and hand-delivered to
Benjamin, who was in Gaza headed a 66-person delegation representing 10
nations. Benjamin and representatives of CODEPINK are delivering the letter to
the U.S. Embassy in Cairo today, June 4, during Obama’s
visit to Egypt.
The text of the letter is
below.
His Excellency President Barack Obama,
President of the
United States of America.
June 3rd 2009
Dear Mr. President,
We welcome your visit to the
Arab world and your administration’s initiative to bridge differences with the
Arab-Muslim world.
One long-standing source of
tension between the United States and this part of the world has been the
failure to resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict.
It is therefore unfortunate
that you will not visit Gaza during your trip to the Middle East and that
neither your Secretary of State nor George Mitchell have
come to hear our point of view.
We have received numerous
visits recently from people of widely varied
backgrounds: U.S. Congressional representatives, European
parliamentarians, the U.N.-appointed Goldstone commission, and grassroots
delegations such as those organized by the U.S. peace group CODEPINK.
It is essential for you to
visit Gaza. We have recently passed through a brutal 22-day Israeli attack.
Amnesty International observed that the death and destruction Gaza
suffered during the invasion could not have happened without U.S.-supplied
weapons and U.S.-taxpayers’ money.
Human Rights Watch has
documented that the white phosphorus Israel dropped on a school, hospital,
United Nations warehouse and civilian neighborhoods in Gaza was manufactured in
the United States. Human Rights Watch concluded that Israel’s use
of this white phosphorus was a war crime.
Shouldn’t you see first-hand
how Israel used your arms and spent your money?
Before becoming president you
were a distinguished professor of law. The U.S. government has also said
that it wants to foster the rule of law in the Arab-Muslim world.
The International Court of
Justice stated in July 2004 that the whole of the West Bank, Gaza and East
Jerusalem are occupied Palestinian territories designated for Palestinian
self-determination, and that the Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian
territories are illegal.
Not one of the 15 judges
sitting on the highest judicial body in the world dissented from these
principles.
The main human rights
organizations in the world, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have
issued position papers supporting the right of the Palestinian refugees to
return and compensation.
Each year in the United Nations
General Assembly nearly every country in the world has supported these
principles for resolving the Israel-Palestine conflict. Every year the
Arab League puts forth a peace proposal based on these principles for resolving
the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Leading human rights
organizations such as Human Rights Watch have also stated that Israel’s siege
of Gaza is a form of collective punishment and therefore illegal under
international law.
We in the Hamas Government are
committed to pursuing a just resolution to the conflict not in contradiction
with the international community and enlightened opinion as expressed in the
International Court of Justice, the United Nations General Assembly, and
leading human rights organizations.
We are prepared to engage
all parties on the basis of mutual respect and without preconditions.
However, our constituency needs
to see a comprehensive paradigm shift that not only commences with lifting the
siege on Gaza and halts all settlement building and expansion but develops into
a policy of evenhandedness based on the very international law and norms we are
prodded into adhering to.
Again, we welcome you to Gaza
which would allow you to see firsthand our
ground zero. Furthermore, it would enhance the US
position; enabling you
to speak with new credibility and authority in dealing
with all the
parties.
Very Truly Yours,
Dr. Ahmed Yousef
Deputy of the Foreign Affairs
Ministry
Former Senior Political Advisor
to Prime Minister Ismael Hanniya