My Letter to the Washington Post RE Israel confronts a flood of African refugees by Ruth Marcus

Palestinian refugees Nahr al Barid, Lebanon, 1952

RE: Israel confronts a flood of African refugees by Ruth Marcus
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ruth-marcus-israel-confronts-a-flood-of-african-refugees/2012/07/24/gJQA5ebZ7W_story.html

Dear Editor,

Demographics should be a research tool, not a national policy shaping institutionalized bigotry and injustice. Israel's obsession with being demographically Jewish perpetuates and exasperates a horrible conflict and a huge refugee crisis as the vast majority of native non-Jewish people of historic Palestine have been pushed into poverty, forced exile and despair.

It is an ongoing crisis and catastrophe:  Just this week Israel decided to destroy eight West Bank Palestinian villages in the southern Hebron hills to make way for an Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) training ground." Palestinian villages face demolition to create IDF training ground

How many more Palestinian homes will Israel destroy, how many more Palestinian families will Israel fragment, and how many more Palestinian refugees will Israel create in its demented quest to be demographically "Jewish"? 

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

Notes

Refugees and the Right of Return: "Palestinian refugees must be given the option to exercise their right of return (as well as receive compensation for their losses arising from their dispossession and displacement) though refugees may prefer other options such as: (i) resettlement in third countries, (ii) resettlement in a newly independent Palestine (even though they originate from that part of Palestine which became Israel) or (iii) normalization of their legal status in the host country where they currently reside. What is important is that individual refugees decide for themselves which option they prefer - a decision must not be imposed upon them."

The Office of International Religious Freedom ( http://www.state.gov/j/drl/irf/ )  Given the U.S. commitment to religious freedom, and to the international covenants that guarantee it as the inalienable right of every human being, the United States seeks to:

• Promote freedom of religion and conscience throughout the world as a fundamental human right and as a source of stability for all countries

Palestinian Refugees (1948-NOW) refused their right to return... and their right to live in peace free from religious bigotry and injustice.

"It is in Israel's vital interest to come to a complete resolution of the conflict between it and the Palestinian people sooner rather than later, relieving the weight of this tragic conflict from both of our peoples' shoulders. We owe it to ourselves. We owe it to the world." Maen Rashid Areikat: The Time for a Palestinian State Is Now

"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world."Eleanor Roosevelt

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