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After third Palestine visit, WB resident convinced U.S. must do more to help
by Rob Poggenklass · News · June 27, 2007
A West Branch resident who recently toured Palestinian lands for a third time said that the situation there is getting worse, not better, and that the U.S. government is partly to blame.
Pat Minor spoke before about a dozen people Saturday night at the Hoover House. She participated this spring in the Congressional Accompaniment Project, which aims to inform members of Congress about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and help the U.S. work toward a more peaceful Middle East. On her trip, Minor spoke with a number of Palestinians and Israelis, making stops in such places as Jerusalem and Bethlehem.
Minor titled her presentation, “Palestine 101: Obstacles to Peace.” The principal obstacles, she said, are roads, settlements, checkpoints and the Israeli West Bank barrier, commonly known as “The Wall.”
The Wall is concrete, measuring somewhere between 20 and 25 feet tall in the city and somewhat lower in rural areas. Minor said that the Israeli government built it not to separate Israeli land from Palestinian land, but to separate Palestinians from their own land. She showed pictures of The Wall, taken this spring, which depict modern Israeli settlements with lush, green vegetation on one side and impoverished Palestinian dwellings on the other.
The Israeli settlements, Minor said, were built in violation of international law. She suggested that the settlements must be removed, or at least turned over to Palestinians, before the larger conflict between the two peoples can be resolved.
The Palestinians face myriad economic problems, which Minor said are made worse by the deteriorating condition of their roads. She showed several pictures of paved Israeli roads on one side of The Wall and dirt and gravel Palestinian roads on the other side.
“It’s one thing after the other thing after the other thing that makes Palestinian life insufferable,” Minor said.
Minor is critical of the U.S. government, which imposed sanctions last year on the Hamas-led Palestinian government. Only this month has the U.S. agreed to resume aid to the Palestinian people, after Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, of the Fatah party, dissolved the unity government with Hamas. The U.S. is also the largest supporter of Israel in the world community.
“Our dollars are paying for a good portion of The Wall,” Minor said. “The U.S. and Israel destabilize anything that Palestinians are able to accomplish and then ask why Palestinians can’t govern themselves.”
Nevertheless, Minor is hopeful that there can be a solution. During a question-and-answer period after the half-hour presentation, she and others said that the vast majority of Israelis and Palestinians want peace. Minor said she is amazed at the resilience of the Palestinian people.
Minor suggested that solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should be the top issue in the 2008 presidential campaign. Allowing the Palestinians to form their own state may appease other Arab countries such as Syria and Iraq, she said, aiding the U.S. in the fight against terrorism.
“If we were to settle the Israeli-Palestinian issue, we wouldn’t have the terrorism problem in our country,” Minor said. “This is the number one issue at the root of terrorism.”
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