Your Wall Of Shame Is Complete, Mr. President
By Ershad Abubacker
19 January, 2010
Countercurrents.org
An Open Letter to President Barack Obama on the first anniversary of his assumption of office
Dear President Obama,
20 January 2010 – It’s been an year since you assumed the White House office on a wave of ‘change’. As you rightly said, change cannot happen overnight, but to put it straight and simple, you have been very disappointing. You visited Cairo in June 2009 to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world; yet, you see all these happening in the same Egypt. Won’t a reasonable crowd of over 700 American citizens, who were traveling to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories via Egypt for a peaceful demonstration against a tyrannic and brutal siege over a population of more than 1.5 million, be given every courtesy and respect by the US Embassy rather than being scuffled and held siege in a foreign country? The siege of American citizens in Egypt is just a symbol, the greater implication being the ongoing siege of the White House and its successive presidents including you by the pro-Israeli power brokers and lobbies who have effectively preempt the American foreign policies in their favor.
It is denigrating for any American not just to be denied a visit to the Ambassador of the country they are in but also being barricaded and kept under siege for almost a day and even cordoning them inside their hotel rooms, blocking them from exiting. There were even events of your citizens being manhandled, pulled down, pushed and shoved on to the barricaded enclosures. The US Embassy in Cairo had been unresponsive to the complaints of its citizens who wanted to see them take an active role to protect Americans against Egyptian police harassment. Can you ever imagine a request for a glass of plain water by your citizens being adamantly refused by your own embassy? And this happened in the same timeless city of Cairo where you were heard in last June, saying that it is your first duty as a President to protect the American people. Did you ever mean that Americans who live inside America, No, right? In Egypt, you failed in your first duty itself, Mr. President.
And if you meant to say that the US citizens have been hurt in Gaza earlier, and the embassy is concerned about the safety of its citizens, this concern of safety would be much more convincing if the US government had demanded proper accountability from Israel in the killing of the 23-year-old American peace activist Rachel Corrie. Leave alone making an independent enquiry into the incident, did your government at least acknowledge the fact that Rachel Corrie was being killed in Rafah by Israel, rather than blindly echoing the Israeli Defense Force notion of Rachel being ‘in the wrong place at the wrong time’? It won’t be a bad idea for you to watch the video of the speech–I am here because I care–delivered by the then 10-year-old Rachel in 1990 at the Fifth Grade Press Conference on World Hunger at Washington. As the old saying, Child, sometimes, is the father of man.
You were talking with great enthusiasm about a two-state solution that is in Israel's interest, Palestine's interest, America's interest, and the World's interest. When you are not even able to provide either security or permission to a group of foreigners, mostly Americans, who are trying to stage a peaceful march to commemorate the Gaza war of 2008 at their personal risk, how can you act on the Middle East issue in the global interest?
It might sound stupid to criticize you for the acts of Egyptian Government, but anyone with a straight head over his shoulders would not undermine the handiwork of US government in formulating the Egyptian policy backed by Israel. “In our presence here, we are saying that we are not casting the blame on Egypt. The responsibility for the shameless and obscene Israeli siege on Gaza rests squarely with our own countries” said an American peace activist in Cairo few weeks back.
The closure of the Rafah border into Gaza, if you meant to say, was a sovereign Egyptian decision and that the United States could not interfere, Nay, it is in keeping with the 2005 ‘Agreement on Movement and Access’ brokered by the United States, and that the US is helping Israel and Egypt to enforce the siege as part of its policy of putting pressure on Palestinian civilians in order to force a change in their leadership. When it comes to the siege in Gaza, the US government is not part of the solution, but an active part of the problem itself. There is no point denying that the main source of danger to people in Gaza is from attacks by Israel using weapons provided by your country, the United States. These are not opinions to be debated, rather, facts to be dealt with.
Now that Egypt is moving forward with its construction of a giant underground steel wall dug between 18 and 25 m deep designed to prevent Palestinians digging tunnels, which have become a lifeline to break the siege, your government can’t wash their hands off it, taming that as a legitimate act of self-defense done by Egypt on its sovereign land. The US embassy representatives in Cairo have confirmed that the US Army Corps of Engineers are providing Egypt with assistance to build an underground steel wall. Anyone who has a fair knowledge about Gaza knows what damage does this wall means to the Palestinian civilians. The wall of shame over your government will now be complete.
Remember, the United States is a high contracting party to the Fourth Geneva Convention, and has the legal obligation to help break the siege on Gaza, which remains an occupied territory, and to bring to justice those suspected of the massive war crimes and crimes against humanity described in the UN-commissioned Goldstone report. Sadly, however, the US policy is to help tighten the siege and to actively obstruct justice. I strongly believe that this is not what you meant by the basis of common principles at your Cairo speech – principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.
Nevertheless, I still have hope and faith in you, Mr. President. However, I just wonder if there isn’t anyone in the White House to remind you that no Israeli prime minister has ever agreed upon to any American president’s request on at least not to expand the Jewish settlements in Palestinian and, forget dismantling and backing out of the settlements already present. George Bush was showed a cold shoulder by Ariel Sharon and Shimon Peres while asked for stopping the battle of Jenin, Bill Clinton was defied by Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres in Oslo Accords; did anyone in Israel ever care for the words of Jimmy Carter during his presidency or even now, so on and so forth. Unless and until you are able to outgrow the pro-Israeli media watch dogs and Israeli lobbying groups like AIPAC, you mantra of change and a credible peace in the Middle East will remain evasive. It will be worthwhile to recount what the South African legend Nelson Mandela said "Our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians."
Now that you have the extra burden of the Nobel Peace Prize that the Swedish Academy has willingly bestowed on you with the faint hope that you would do something, it’s time for you to act now. The world still counts on you.
Best,
Ershad Abubacker
[email protected]
Ershad Abubacker is a research analyst based in Chennai. He can be contacted at [email protected].
