Open Letter to Senator Barack Obama.

Dear Senator Barack Obama:

For a presidential candidates who made “change” central to his election campaign for the presidency of the United States, your statements before the Israeli Lobby AIPAC about Jerusalem and the continued Israeli Military and Settler occupation certainly was a shocker to millions of voters here in the US and the hundreds of millions of world citizens who look to your presidency for real change.

For the last 40 years, US has been not only an accomplice to the longest military and settler occupation in modern time, but a partner in the Israeli occupation, providing legal, financial and military support for an illegal occupation whose time has come to an end.

For over 40 years the United States has been a party to the virtual imprisonment of over 4 million Palestinians who had to endure the most oppressive, degrading and dehumanizing occupation in history. An occupation that only imprisoned over 700,000 out of 4 millions but also confiscated their properties, destroyed their farms and homes, uprooted their trees (centuries old Olive trees were uprooted simply because these trees belonged to Arabs) and denied them access to their neighbors and villages by virtue of over 550 military checkpoints where it takes some 15 hours to cross 5 miles of distance.

We share with you a vision of a united Jerusalem. No one from this side of the conflict wants to see again a divided Jerusalem. We want you to take the lead as President of the United States in pursuing a united open Jerusalem for All. A Jerusalem that can be a model for hope, coexistence, reconciliation and cooperation.

Hundreds of billions of our tax dollars went to support the continued occupation of Palestinians Territories, compliment of our own Congress. A Congress that takes few minutes to pass $5 Billion Israeli aid packages while taking months to debate home leaves for working mothers. That Mr. Obama should tell you the need for change when it comes to our Middle East policies. Hate and resentment for the United States does not arise out of cultural values as some argues, but is a result of misguided and hostile policies toward the people and the region including policies supporting the continued disfranchisement of Palestinians from their City of Jerusalem. Tens of thousands of Jerusalemite Arabs have lost the rights of residency in their own city as a result of deliberate Israeli policies of ethnic cleansing the city from its centuries old citizens.

We hope your election to the office of the president of the United States will make the US a partner in the peace rather than a partner in the Occupation, that you will make the US an honest broker rather than a dishonest and biased partner with Israel. That you will work toward convincing the leadership of the American Jewish community that Israel at peace with its neighbors is not against their own selfish interest and does not diminish their role and influence over Congress and US politics. That peace for Israel is good and beneficial for the American Jewish community. With Israel at peace, the American Jewish community can divert much of it resources to community programs here and abroad, certainly saving US tax payers billions of dollars and saving our Congress from the need to kneel before its power and influence. Thank you and G-d/ God/Allah bless.