ADC Action
Alert:
Demand US Intervention on Behalf of Arab Americans Trapped in Israel
On June 4 over 40 American citizens of Palestinian origin were denied the right
to leave Israel and return home to the United States. Israeli security
officials are canceling all exit visas of U.S. citizens of Palestinian origin,
and are thus keeping them in Israel against their will. ADC has raised
this issue with Administration officials in recent months, but now finds that
Israel is using the current grave situation to make an existing pattern of
discrimination against Americans of Arab origin systematic and pervasive, rather
than bringing it to an end. ADC President Hala Maksoud has written to
Secretary of State Colin Powell demanding an explanation, and calling on the
State Department and the rest of the Administration to intervene immediately
with Israel to stop this abuse and insist that all Americans are treated equally
by Israel regardless of their ethnicity.
ACTION REQUESTED:
Please write to Secretary of State Colin Powell and urge the State Department to
ensure that Israel's mistreatment of Arab Americans ends at once and that a
single standard for the protection of Americans abroad be enforced. Feel
free to use Hala Maksoud's letter below as a guide.
Please write to:
The Hon. Colin Powell
Secretary of State
Department of State
2201 C St., NW
Washington, DC 20520
Fax: (202) 261-8577
Email secretary@state.gov
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TEXT OF HALA MAKSOUD'S
LETTER TO COLIN POWELL:
June 5 , 2001
Dear Secretary Powell:
I write to express the deep concern of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination
Committee (ADC) upon learning that Israeli security
officials are canceling all exit visas of U.S. citizens of Palestinian origin,
and are thus keeping them in Israel against their will. As you may know,
on June 4 over 40 American citizens of Palestinian origin were denied the right
to leave Israel and return home to the United States. Numerous cases have
come to light since the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising of Arab Americans
being denied use of their U.S. passports and forced to obtain Palestinian travel
documents in order to leave Israel and the Palestinian territories it occupies.
We raised this issue with you and a number of other Administration officials in
recent months. We now find that Israel is using the current grave
situation to make this pattern of discrimination against Americans of Arab
origin systematic and pervasive, rather than bringing it to an end. This
requires an explanation.
We strongly urge the State Department and the rest of the Administration to
intervene immediately with Israel to stop this abuse and insist that all
Americans are treated equally by Israel regardless of their ethnicity. To
allow Israel to extend its systematic discrimination against Arabs and modes of
collective punishment to Arab Americans, especially given the massive aid which
the American tax payers provide that country is an intolerable outrage.
This refusal of exit is particularly disturbing in that these scores of
Arab Americans were attempting to leave Israel and return home to the United
States in accordance with a recent U.S. Travel Advisory. The
Advisory states that, “The Department of State warns U.S. citizens to defer
travel to Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. The U.S. Government has
indications that there is a heightened threat of terrorist incidents in Israel,
the West Bank and Gaza. In light of several recent terrorist bombings in
Israel and continuing violence in Gaza and the West Bank, American citizens
should exercise extreme caution.” Thus, according to the State
Department's own Advisory, these Americans are being forced to remain in a
fundamentally unsafe environment simply because of ethnic discrimination.
The Israeli practice of discriminating against Arab Americans because of their
ethnicity is contrary to international law. It also violates Israeli
law, specifically Article 6(a) of the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty,
which states, "every person is free to get out of Israel."
Moreover, we note that in other cases in which American citizens are held
against their will or denied exit by a foreign country, the government has
reacted swiftly and without ambiguity. We cannot help but feel that a
single standard for the protection of all Americans is not being applied.
Again, we urge in the strongest possible terms, that the United States
government intervene on behalf of the rights of these American citizens.
No state can be exempt from the standards of treatment we demand for our
citizens, and no group of Americans can be excluded from the protection to which
they are entitled.
Yours,
Hala Maksoud, Ph.D.
President
ADC is the largest Arab-American
grassroots organization in the United States. It was founded in 1980 by former
Senator James Abourezk.
Palestine Affairs Council