Palestinian journalist Mohammed Omer lies in his hospital bed in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip June 30, 2008. (Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters)
US State Dept
2201 C St., NW
Washington, DC 20520
202-647-5291; Fax: 202-647-6434
E-mail: secretary@state.gov
Dear Secretary of State Rice:
I am the youngest journalist living in Gaza and reporting on the realities of life there. My articles are published and read around the world, including in the United States, and give a voice to millions. As a result, I’ve been asked to come to the United States on a speaking tour with dual purposes. The first is to help Americans understand the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, an acknowledged root cause of instability in the Middle East. Secondly, my trip will serve to assist Palestinians in understanding the U.S. Too often the only impression the Palestinian people have of America arrives at the end of a gun barrel or bulldozer. I know you agree that understanding each other, seeing each other as human beings, is the first step to peace, and requires a dialogue between people. This trip will allow me to act as a conduit for bridging misconceptions and healing misunderstandings.
In order to embark upon this trip, however, I need your help.
The American Consulate has agreed to grant me a visa interview in Jerusalem. Last January, however, Israel passed a new law forbidding Christian and Muslim Arab men between the ages of 16 and 35 from traveling between Gaza and the West Bank, or into Israel, if they are unmarried, or have fewer than two children. Ridiculous? Yes. Petty? Definitely. But real. Such discrimination based on a person’s faith and race does Jim Crow proud.
Being 22 and having just graduated college, I’m really not ready to get married, Madame Secretary. From what I understand, this is not an uncommon situation for 22-year-old American men, either. Yet this is Israel’s excuse. Although the United States has agreed to allow me to travel to your country, Israel is preventing me from going to your consulate for the interview because I am an undefined, ambiguous “security risk” to them—but not to the U.S.
My only weapon is words; my conduct throughout my life proves this. How is it that a small country, a nation which every year receives 40 percent of America’s foreign aid budget, can continue to violate international law and consistently ignore the requests of the most powerful nation on this planet? Madame Secretary, with all due respect, why is the United States allowing a tiny country to dictate who can and cannot visit your country? Shouldn’t America decide?
My touring the United States is in the best interests of the American government, as it would help win the hearts and minds of the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims, not to mention the nearly 2 billion non-dispensationalist Christians also affected by Israel’s policies against the Palestinians and Christian customs and holy sites.
I’ve read your speeches, Dr. Rice. Like me, you look for diplomatic solutions, a thinking person’s remedy to conflict. Like me, your actions show you seek justice, and justice resides within understanding. Does truth undermine security or strengthen it? By exposing injustices, truth forces people to act with justice, thereby benefitting all—with one exception: those profiting from fear, ignorance and misinformation. Could it be that Israel considers me a “security threat” because I tell the truth?
Madame Secretary, my next door neighbor, a middle-aged man who was not part of the resistance, was killed in late September during another Israeli attack. My friend is dead because he was not Jewish.Walking through the wreckage of his home, I saw shells and weapons fragments with U.S. markings littering the ground.Gaza today is a graveyard of wasted minds and marginalized lives. How many more wasted minds must perish?
Any man may wield a sword. It takes an exceptional person to reason, persuade, change hearts and minds and convince others to set aside hate in favor of the more difficult task of negotiation. Perhaps this is why when God sent Jesus, a man who, solely on the strength of words and ideas, conquered the most powerful empire in the world.
American values are based on the conviction that a person’s worth or participation in society is not determined by skin color, faith, national origin or gender. Living under Israeli occupation, we Palestinians have never experienced these values. We would like to. In order for this to happen, however, people need to see us for what we are—human. This is what my trip is about.
Given the principles governing your country, the values canonized within your Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights, it seems unconscionable that the United States would allow another nation to prevent a reporter from speaking to the American people about what it is like to grow up and live under apartheid—for we Muslims and Christians live in a segregated society of privilege for one group and oppression for another. The criteria for deciding who is privileged and who is not in Israel is faith first, race second—and no third. Being non-Jewish and Arab, we simply do not count.
I fervently hope you will give me a chance to share Palestine with the American people and the American people with Palestine. Understanding is how bridges are built, and dialogue instigates peace. Madame Secretary, please ask Israel to grant me the freedom to travel to Jerusalem for my visa interview so I may come to know your nation, and it us.
Respectfully,
Mohammed Omer, Journalist
Rafah, Gaza Strip, Occupied Palestine
Also see Robin’s Post…
hank strobl said,
June 30, 2008 at 9:57 pm
I’m not very optimistic about Rice actually taking any steps here, regardless of a flood of letters. Because that would go against the policy of this administration. Not necessarily that Rice doesn’t care, or the she won’t, in some situations, make a move counter policy; more to the fact that she wouldn’t stick her neck out for a single individual as in this case. She is aware that it’s her job to implement the president’s policy on foreign affairs, not forge her own. And it’s so much easier for her to just brush it under the rug and try to forget.
BlueyBlogger said,
July 1, 2008 at 1:00 am
Ms Rice would have only been following orders. What needs to be done is to find out who gave the orders….then sue their proverbial ass off.
When you see the bigger picture of how things works…..you may just remember what Madeline Albright said whilst in the same job.
When 500,000 civilians were bombed out of existence in the initial bombing raids in Afghanistan…her comments were: “It’s just collateral damage”.
I rest my case!
Zimbabalouie said,
July 1, 2008 at 2:17 am
As with any item that deals with official Israel policy towards the residents of the occupied territory’s only shedding the light of international public opinion seems to offer any modecum of success. Even then the official Israel policy makes any findings that show Israel in a negative context will not be published.
Although the world through the internet now sees the horrendous acts of inhuman tones that are daily ritual for the Israel goverment there remains an insurmountable barrier to getting justice for anyone in the state of Israel.
When the governing body knows no shame there can be no guilt. When there is no soul there can be no remorse. So to expect that a nation whose leadership has openly vowed to destroy an entire race of people to have shame or soul is as fruitless as asking the sun to reverse its course through the sky.
Darel said,
July 1, 2008 at 4:37 am
Mohammed,
With respect you appeal the Rice and the state department is more then resonable. However, I doubt your efforts will allow progress. Having traveled to many nations and friends from both Isrial and Palestinian the American people are feed a healthy diet of propoganda on TV and news. The US State department has adopted very odd anti-semetic views of simple speech.
Mohammed, what the American people don’t understand is that the people of Isrial don’t really support the actions of there own gov. Much the same way the American people don’t support our own gov leadership. For example: In our nation the left won house seats to end the war in Iraq and most everyone this past week signed the next war spending bill…. Again the American people were not served but instead screwed. To add congress agreeded to support additioinal actions to oppose Iran yet the reports of Nuclear on Iran’s part isn’t supported by major reports….
Regardless of the concerns above the youth of every era is the only hope for change of the future. WHile I consider myself young at 40 history has always proven that 18-30 year olds are the real leaders of change while the older crowd prefers same old song.
I support your postive attempts to reach out to the people of both sides and it’s my prayer and hope as a Chritian that you are allowed to visit.
Isrial has always ignored John 3:16
nota said,
July 2, 2008 at 5:38 am
I don’t understand what’s the big deal here? So she helped him get a visa. I am sure it was done not for some higher cause but on the judgment that doing otherwise could lead to bad press. Are we to forget all the thousands of killings being facilitated by Miss Rice (and not just in Palestine) just ’cause she helped one Palestinian get a visa? (And see what else it got Omer!)