HAW Steering Committee statement on Gaza

HAW Steering Committee statement on Gaza
January 2009

The following statement has been adopted, after discussion, by the HAW Steering Committee.

The Steering Committee of Historians Against the War (HAW) wishes to add its voice to those who protest the collective punishment levied by the Israeli government against the civilian population of Gaza. The Steering Committee also protests the blank check given by the Bush administration and Congress for Israeli military actions. The use of US-supplied weaponry for the mass killing of civilians and the destruction of Palestinian infrastructure is deeply abhorrent.

Almost as abhorrent, to us as historians, is the US government's misleadingly one-sided view of the origins of the current conflict, ignoring the overwhelming military and economic superiority of Israel over Gaza, the nearly four decades-long Israeli occupation of Gaza, and the tightening Israeli blockade of Gaza that precipitated Hamas's December 19 abrogation of the truce.*

United for Peace and Justice, the broad anti-war coalition of which HAW is a member, maintains on its web site (at <http://www.unitedforpeace.org/>) a set of links to information on the crisis, updated daily. The UFPJ site also reports on activities around the US and elsewhere in support of a ceasefire and an end to restrictions on humanitarian aid. The Steering Committee encourages members and friends of HAW who agree that US policy in the Gaza crisis has been wrong-headed to make their voices heard.
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* See, e.g., Harvard University scholar Sara Roy's article, "If Gaza falls…," in the /London Review of Books/,
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n01/roy_01_.html.