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Speak up on Gaza, Obama told

LONDON: Some 100 academics from around the world have written an open letter to U.S. President-elect Barack Obama protesting against America’s support to the Israeli invasion of Gaza and urging him to speak up.

They have also criticised remarks he made sometime ago supporting Israel’s right to defend itself against rocket attacks from Gaza.

The letter, sponsored by Teachers Against Occupation, highlighted the plight of the people of Gaza, especially women and children.

“You have not hesitated to identify your children with Israeli children, living in fear of attack. But imagine, for a moment, that your daughters are Palestinian and live in Gaza. How would you react then? Picture their world. They are crammed with one-and-a-half million others in a sliver of land roughly twice the size of Washington D.C. Many are refugees displaced from their ancestral lands by Israeli settlers. Drinking water is scarce. Israel can disrupt the supply of electricity to Gaza at will and its people often live in darkness for days on end…Nor is there a means of escape. Israel controls Gaza’s airspace, maritime access and most of its land border. Its punishing military blockade severely curtails the movement of food, money, fuel, medicines, and humanitarian aid. Goods must be smuggled through tunnels,” it said.

Signatories, drawn from leading international academic institutions including British and American universities, demanded that America end its support to Israeli actions.

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