by SONJA KARKAR
Dear supporter,
So many of you have asked what you can do to help the Palestinians during
this calamitous time. Deluging Israel’s embassies with emails and phone
calls is unlikely to change their game plan, but there is an alternative way
that might bring the Palestinians some hope of relief.
We need to put pressure on the Egyptian government to open the Rafah Crossing and allow the Palestinians a means of escape as well as humanitarian supplies in.
If you could just send the Egyptian embassies in key countries – and perhaps even those in your own countries of residence – a copy of the letter below, we may be able to shame the Egyptian government into reversing its decision to aid and abet Israel’s imprisonment of the Palestinians in Gaza.
Please sign, cut and paste the letter and send to the emails listed below.
Embassies in other countries can be found listed at the following link:
http://embassy.goabroad.com/embassies-of/egypt
If you have the time, we’d also appreciate you phoning the embassies and demanding that Egypt immediately open the Rafah crossing permanently.
Egypt’s cooperation is the only way to provide some desperate relief for the Palestinian people under Israel’s savage bombardment and its relentless siege that has seen Palestinian lives, hopes and dreams impossibly wither away for some 8 years. At least we should try. I don’t think it is too much
to ask.
Sonja Karkar
Australians for Palestine/
Women for Palestine
PROPOSED LETTER
Dear Sir/Madam,
I would like to express my concern with Egypt’s unreasonable and inhumane decision to keep imprisoning the 1.8 million Palestinians in Gaza. The closure of the Rafah Crossing, Gaza’s only gateway to the world is contrary to basic decency, international law and Egypt’s obligation to help and assist its Palestinian neighbors who are facing the most brutal and atrocious assault by Israel.
It is demeaning to Egypt’s stature in the world and its moral standing to obstruct aid and medical convoys that are trying to reach Gaza. I understand that Egypt has internal political issues but there is no excuse for its failure to meet its most basic obligation under international humanitarian law by being complicit with Israel’s policy of collective punishment and
imprisonment of a civilian occupied population.
Egypt’s security needs can surely be addressed by a variety of means, which do not include keeping the gate shut to the people of Gaza especially those who only require a right of passage to other destinations.
We urge you to no longer be a tool of oppression and to immediately open the Rafah crossing permanently.
Yours sincerely,
Embassy of the Arab Republic of Egypt in the United States
Embassy of Egypt in Australia
Embassy of Egypt in London, United Kingdom
Embassy of Egypt in Canada
Embassy of Egypt in France
(Thanks to Ingrid B. Mork)