Urgent Gaza Request

Franciscans International and the Partnership for Global Justice have issued this urgent plea. It's rather lengthy, but worth reading:

January 15, 2009
Dear Colleagues and Friends,
The crisis in Gaza is currently being discussed in the U.N. General Assembly. Our concern is to consider not just a cease fire , but long lasting solutions requiring Human Security. We feel that it is urgent to contact our UN representatives offering a two sets of strategies that should be included in their negotiations.

We urge you to write to your UN Representative as soon as possible urging him/her to consider these issues. We would like to have a volume of letters faxed or emailed as soon as possible.
Thank you,
Kathie Uhler, OSF
Franciscans International

Lucianne Siers, OP
Partnership for Global Justice

Write to:

Ambassador Elect Susan Rice
H.E. Mr. Zalamy Khalilzad, Ambassador
Permanent Mission of the United States
140 E. 45th St.
New York, NY 10017
Fax: 212-415-4443
E-mail: usa@un.int

Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon
United Nations Headquarters
United Nations Secretariat
New York, NY 10017
Fax: 212-963-4879

Sample Text
Your Excellency:
We, the undersigned, urge you through your good offices to strive for an end to the Arab/Israeli conflict. We urge Your Excellency, moreover, to press beyond ceasefires to a permanent peace.

As persons of faith, we care deeply about the welfare of both Israelis and Palestinians and deplore the violent deaths of those caught in this conflict. We reject all rationales for the unconscionable Palestinian rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza into Israel. We similarly reject the Israeli response as disproportionate and likely to strengthen extremists and undermine moderates in the region.

We are aghast at the carnage on both sides, but in particular with the hundreds of Palestinian dead. We condemn the Israeli violations of international law and the 4th Geneva Conventions. The president of the United Nations General Assembly, H.E. Mr. Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, emphasized these points in his statement of 27 December 2008. The egregious violations include: the collective punishment resulting from the present military offensive into Gaza, which has been preceded by a two-year blockade, affecting 1.5 million people; the targeting of civilian neighborhoods; and the disproportionate military response to the actions of a few militants.
We believe that to build a lasting peace any response to the violent attacks on both sides must move BEYOND CEASE FIRE. It is clear to us that poverty and deprivation lead to violent conflict; that development and human security are key to long lasting solutions. Therefore, we believe that the range of injustices and insecurities experienced by the Palestinian peoples must be addressed.

Deprivation from basic human needs (including food, water,housing, healthcare and all forms of education); social protection and economic collapse must be addressed. In order to achieve peace and stability in our interdependent world, preventing and mitigating the impact of violent conflicts are not sufficient. It is absolutely necessary to uphold human rights, to pursue inclusive and equitable development, and to respect human dignity and diversity. It is imperative to develop the capability of individuals and communities to make informed choices and to act on their own behalf.

Therefore, we urge you to develop two sets of strategies: protection strategies and empowerment strategies.

STRATEGY I: The peoples of Palestine and Israel need to be protected from violent attacks. Basic rights of the peoples of both regions need to be upheld.

STRATEGY II: The peoples of both sides of the conflict should be empowered to act on their own behalf. This empowerment will provide the opportunity for them to demand respect for their dignity when it is violated. This will also create incentive for work and for education as well as public space for freedom of the press, freedom of information, freedom of conscience and belief.

We wish to assure Your Excellency of our willingness as NGOs to support the peace process, and not only from within our own fields of action. There are those among us who stand ready to serve you and others informally wherever needed as emissaries or messengers of goodwill.
Sincerely,
_____________
Background Information
I. Statement of the president of the United Nations General Assembly, H.E. Mr. Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann:
The Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip represent severe and massive violations of international humanitarian law as defined in the Geneva Conventions, both in regard to the obligations of an Occupying Power and in the requirements of the laws of war. Those violations include: Collective punishment - the entire 1.5 million people who live in the crowded Gaza Strip are being punished for the actions of a few militants. Targeting civilians - the airstrikes were aimed at civilian areas in one of the most crowded stretches of land in the world, certainly the most densely populated area of the Middle East. Disproportionate military response - the airstrikes have not only destroyed every police and security office of Gaza's elected government, but have killed and injured hundreds of civilians; at least one strike reportedly hit groups of students attempting to find transportation home from the university.
I remind all member states of the United Nations that the UN continues to be bound to an independent obligation to protect any civilian population facing massive violations of international humanitarian law - regardless of what country may be responsible for those violations. I call on all Member States, as well as officials and every relevant organ of the United Nations system, to move expeditiously not only to condemn Israel's serious violations, but to develop new approaches to providing real protection for the Palestinian people.

II. The 1993 Vienna Declaration of Human Rights stresses the universality and interdependence of human rights of all people, including civil, political, economic and social rights which are included in the conventions and protocols derived from the Declaration on the 1948 Declaration on Human Rights.

III. The Commission on Human Security has provided quality solutions for protection and empowerment of peoples involved in conflict. See Human Security Now: Protecting and Empowering People. Commission on Human Security, New York, 2003. ISBN 0-9741108-0-9.