Please take a moment to thank the Daily Telegraph for an excellent commentary on 6 June 2007 by Emma Williams entitled "40 years on, Israel remains a prisoner," about the legacy of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
It is a welcome surprise to see something like this in a newspaper that is usually and traditionally pro-Israel, and comes a month after another excellent article in the Telegraph about the discrimination faced by Israel's Arab citizens, about which we also issued an Action Alert.
As such, it is very important that the newspaper knows that such content is necessary, appreciated and should continue, so please write in.
Write to dtletters@telegraph.co.uk, dtcomment@telegraph.co.uk, and post your comments in the "have your say" section at the end of the commentary.
Please be concise and polite, and BCC letters to info@arabmediawatch.com. If you want your letter to be published in the newspaper, indicate this in the subject line of your email (do not copy and paste the subject or contents of this Action Alert) and provide your full name, address and contact details. Letter-writing tips can be found at:
http://www.arabmediawatch.com/amw/MediaLobbying/LetterWritingTips/tabid/134/Default.aspx
The commentary is available at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2007/06/06/do0607.xml
It should be read in full, but following are extracts:
"The Six-Day War that began on June 5, 1967, transformed Israelis from a people fearing for their very existence as they waited for the enemy to strike (as they thought), to triumphant victors in possession of the Sinai, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights. And yet, 40 years later, few Israelis are celebrating. Some Right-wingers will do so, but the date will be used most vigorously by Israelis campaigning to bring the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip to an end."
"Supporters of Israel long denied that Israel 'occupied' Palestinian land. The ground was cut from under their feet in 2003, when PM Ariel Sharon stated: 'You might not like the word, but what is happening is 'occupation', which is bad for Israel, and bad for the Palestinians, and bad for the Israeli economy. Controlling 3.5 million Palestinians cannot go on for ever'."
"Occupation has brought...Palestinians to a shameful state of despair and imprisonment."
"The closure system (the 550 checkpoints, the no-go areas and the Separation Barrier etc) has killed any chance of a normal life in the West Bank, let alone the encaged Gaza Strip - the Israeli organisation Gisha reports that Israel's control over Gaza has actually tightened since the withdrawal in 2005."
"The occupation has meant not only the corruption of the occupiers that prolonged military occupation inevitably brings. As a growing number of Israelis recognise, this occupation now threatens Israel's very future. Which is why true friends of Israel need to help it out of this mess."