ALLEGRA PACHECO
An Israeli Jewish human rights lawyer who represents Palestinians in the West Bank, Pacheco is now a fellow at the Bunting Institute at Radcliffe. She wrote in The New York Times last week: “Since 1994, Palestinians have seen the influx of 50,000 new Jewish settlers into the West Bank and Gaza, the paving of more than 400 kilometers of roads on confiscated land, demolition of more than 800 Palestinian homes, a threefold increase in unemployment …the arrest of 13,000 Palestinians, and complete curtailment of freedom of movement.” Today she said: “In almost every city and town in Israel, large Jewish mobs, chanting ‘death to the Arabs,’ have attacked Palestinian citizens. The Israeli government has yet to crack down — effectively giving a green light. The international community should send protection for them — they are no less deserving than the Albanians in Kosovo.”
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SIMONA SHARONI
Executive director of the Consortium on Peace Research, Education and Development, Sharoni has written extensively about Middle East politics and conflict resolution. An Israeli Jew living in the U.S., Sharoni said today: “During the intifadah, it took Jews awhile to be horrified as to what was happening in their name. How can Barak set ultimatums to the Palestinians to stop the violence when his military is carrying out most of it? The Oslo process was unjust and problematic to begin with — the situation calls for a totally different framework designed to address the core issues of the conflict: refugees, Jerusalem, borders and settlements.”
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PHYLLIS BENNIS
Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and author of Calling the Shots: How Washington Dominates Today’s UN, Bennis said today: “The UN is the right venue for resolving the Mideast crisis — it always has been. It is an international crisis that must be resolved by international law and the international community. The U.S. should step back and let the UN do its job…. The U.S. decision to abstain from a consensus of the rest of the world sharply demonstrates the isolation of U.S. policy in the Mideast.”
BARBARA LUBIN
Director of the Middle East Children’s Alliance, Lubin, who will be going to Israel and Palestine on Friday with money for medicine for Makassed Hospital in Jerusalem, said today: “Until there is a just resolution for both peoples, there will be bloodshed, so for us this is expected. Palestinians should have their own state, no more of these bantustans with zone ‘A,’ zone ‘B,’ zone ‘C.’ Sharon’s visit to the mosque was a political move, part of his battle with Netanyahu and the latest chapter in his bloody record.”
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ALI ABUNIMAH
Vice president of the Arab-American Action Network, Abunimah said today: “For the first time in decades Palestinians in the occupied territories, Palestinians in Israel and Palestinian refugees (especially in Lebanon) are all protesting simultaneously. This shows that this is about basic injustice, not about Yasir Arafat giving an order.”
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FRANCIS BOYLE
Boyle is professor of law at the University of Illinois and former legal advisor to the Palestinian delegation from 1991 to 1993.
For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020 or (202) 332-5055; David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
