Letter to the Editor
For Middle East Peace

Dear Editor,

Minnesota born Macalester alumni Jeff Halper, head of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolition, is a member of a delegation, sponsored by the Free Gaza movement, seeking to move relief supplies from Cyprus to the citizens of Gaza, who are imprisoned in their own homes, exposed to extreme military violence, deprived of the basic necessities of life, and stripped of their most fundamental human rights and dignity.

Halper, a professor of anthropology at Ben Gurion Univeresity and nominee for the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, justifies the action even as he criticizes the Palestinians for their attacks against the civilian populations of  Siderot and other communities.  “I, an Israeli Jew, felt compelled to join this voyage to break the illegal siege. As a person who seeks a just peace with the Palestinians, who understands (despite what our politicians tell us) that they are not our enemies, but other people seeking precisely what we sought and fought for—national self-determination.  I cannot stand idly aside. I can no more passively witness my government’s destruction of another people than I can watch the Occupation destroy the moral fabric of my own country.  To do so would violate my commitment to human rights …”

For the latest web information see www.freegaza.org.
Polly Mann