My letter to the NYTimes RE "New Proposal to Divide Jerusalem Unites People Against It"

James Madison 1751-1836, fourth President of the United States (1809–17) & founding father known as the "Father of the Constitution" for his pivotal role in drafting and promoting the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

RE: New Proposal to Divide Jerusalem Unites People Against It
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/07/world/middleeast/new-proposal-to-divide-jerusalem-unites-people-against-it.html?emc=edit_th_20160307&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=22789767

Dear Editor,

Imagine if an American city decided it wanted to be "Christian", and as such required that all ID cards and license plates feature a person's supposed religion, enabling the powers that be and countless pencil pushers as well as strangers on the street to easily discriminate in many many different ways against those deemed to be the "wrong" religion and a demographic threat.  Put aside the fact that in America today, due to our laws and our Bill of Rights, this can't happen- yet... Just imagine the consequences for countless innocent people. Imagine the ramifications and cumulative damage over decades of such a policy.  That is Israel today.

Article 1. of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights quite rightly points out that " All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."

Jerusalem is a world treasure. It behooves us all, regardless of our religion or lack thereof, to compassionately refuse to buy into and empower the institutionalized bigotry, injustice, and escalating violence imposed by an Israel obsessed with displacing and destroying the native non-Jewish population of the Holy Land. 

Expecting and insisting on a fully secular two state solution based on FULL respect for international law and The Universal Declaration of Human Rights to once and for all end the Israel-Palestine conflict, for everyone's sake, is the right thing to do and the best way forward. 

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES
The Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you...

 

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 10 December 1948, was the result of the experience of the Second World War.