Mr Tony Blair
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
10 Downing Street
London
UK
5 March 2003
Dear Mr Blair,
I carefully listened to your speech to the Scottish conference of the Labour Party in Glasgow on 15 February. I share the moral instincts that make you wish to rid the world of Saddam Hussein. As a British citizen and a Palestinian, I also welcome your declared intention to achieve peace in the Middle East based on the creation of a democratic, viable Palestinian state living side-by-side with a secure Israel.
Yet I am also compelled to write this letter to you now: by the urgency not just of the threat of war in Iraq, but of the present reality in my country, Palestine. I have lived in Gaza for the past twelve years amid the consequences of war and violence. I have worked as a psychiatrist at the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme caring for the victims of severe trauma, particularly children. I have learned, above all, that violence can only bring more violence.
According to our latest research, 27% of the children of Gaza dream of becoming martyrs. These children have been victimised by the humiliation and the helplessness of their fathers, by the destruction of their homes, by the shooting and killing of their loved ones. For them, life on earth has become equal to death, and they want to die in glory and to rest in heaven.
Among the good citizens of Britain there are many Arabs and Muslims like me. In continental Europe there are millions more. Your governments policies and actions can be decisive for all of us when we think of the future.
We Muslims and Arabs want to see ourselves as dignified citizens of a Britain we fully belong to, not as a defeated and humiliated people. Britain should not be turned into our enemy. All of us know the influence you have on the American president and how you could help him, help America, and help the world by steering a balanced strategy one of peace and justice rather than one of war and vengeance.
We know also how great a challenge this would be. We are acutely aware of the influence of hardline supporters of Israel people like Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith, John Bolton on the Bush administration. We believe that this influence represents a serious danger to the Middle East and beyond; the Zionist project of Ariel Sharon which they support could only be fulfilled at the cost of the destruction and murder of millions of people.
Did you notice, Mr. Blair, that the longest applause you received in Glasgow was when you mentioned the need to have a lasting peace in the Middle East? People know that this is the heart of all issues. You said that in difficult times, courage and leadership are needed. Well, you will need these qualities in abundance in the face of Ariel Sharon, Binyamin Netanyahu, and Shaul Mofaz.
After all, the conference in London which you planned with the intention of outlining a fresh road map to peace, was obstructed by an Israeli prime minister who would not even allow Palestinian ministers to leave the besieged West Bank. The conference was in principle an excellent opportunity to show Britains determination to exercise a new role in the Middle East, yet you failed to condemn the Israeli government for its actions.
If the need for lasting peace is the heart of all issues, then the Palestinian issue is the crux of politics in the Middle East and among Arabs and Muslims. No other subject so decisively affects them. And indeed, the suffering of the Palestinians is unbearable not just for Arabs and Muslims but for every man and woman who believes in the justice and dignity of humanity.
This was made vivid by Shulamit Aloni, a former member of the Knesset, writing in the newspaper Haaretz on 6 March 2003: there is no single fixed method for murder and not even for genocide. She goes on to quote Binyamin Elon, the minister of tourism in the Israeli government, as having enjoined: make [the Palestinians] life so bitter that they will transfer themselves willingly.
Mr Prime Minister, I believe that in addressing the Middle East, you started the wrong way round.
If you had begun by confronting Ariel Sharon and securing the end of thirty-six years of Israeli military occupation, and an end to Israeli campaigns of destruction of home and life, then we would have believed and supported you when you talked about the tyranny of Saddam and the need to remove him.
If you had mentioned once that Israel has to comply with forty-two UN Security Council resolutions, respect basic human rights, and allow inspections of its arsenal of weapons of mass destruction, we would have believed and supported you.
Mr Blair, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein is a part of the axis of evil. Allow me to tell you who are among the other parts: the rest of the dictators in the Arab world, without exception; the Zionist military occupation and colonisation of Palestine; and American administrations to the extent that they have supported both.
I sincerely hope that you will show courage and leadership in choosing not to join this axis, but instead to point the Middle East towards a different path, one of peace and justice. If you do so, I believe that not only Arabs and Muslims, but the whole world, will follow your lead.
Respectfully yours,
Dr Eyad al-Sarraj
Gaza, Palestine
As openDemocracy publishes this letter, Tony Blair issued his latest position statement on the Middle East peace process.
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