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05/21/2004:
"An Open Letter to the American People"
By OMAR BARGHOUTI...Whatever you ask, please do not ask why we "hate" you. Putting aside the simplistic and dichotomic nature of such a question -- "you're either with us or against us," your great leader says -- let me give you my straight answer: I don't.
But, I hate what your government is doing in your name, with your tax money, and with solid support from most of you. I despise the fact that your country is sponsoring Israeli colonial oppression against my people, shielding Israel from the world's wrath and from the overdue prospect of sanctions for violating every applicable precept of international law in maintaining its military occupation and illegal colonies in the West Bank and Gaza, its racial discrimination against its own Palestinian citizens and its obdurate rejection of the internationally protected right of our refugees to return to the lands from which Israel had expelled them, and on the ruins of which it had established itself.
I hate the way your mainstream media refers to our innocent victims, whether in Iraq or Palestine, as faceless numbers, as relative humans, as dispensable objects in your empire's crusade for world domination.
I hate the repugnant hubris of your "elected" lawmakers, who owe their seats and privileges to a few very powerful lobbies controlling your lives and minds, and forming the pillar of American flouting of international law in every field imaginable. It is ironic that lawmakers anywhere can become such an infested breeding ground for lawlessness in international affairs.
I hate the fact that your military, oil and other sinister industries have flourished at the expense of killing, injuring or ruining the livelihood of millions in Asia, Africa and Latin America. And I strongly resent the fact that in order to keep prices low at your gas pumps, Arabs have had to suffer under despotic rulers, hand-picked and buttressed by your consecutive governments for decades.
I hate the silence, the apathy -- and therefore the implicit approval -- that your majority espouses when faced with incriminating evidence of your government's wrongdoing in our countries. After Falluja, you were silent. After Rafah, you were apathetic. After Guantanamo's horrors were revealed, you turned your eyes and ears the other way.
Why do most of you hate us, we, people of the south, should ask? Why can't you accept us as beings who are equally human, who possess a similar sense of pride, who have similar dreams and aspirations, and who value peace and dignified living more than anything else? Why can't you see that all we need is justice and a chance to develop on our own, without your government's oppressive exploitation, patronizing intervention, or masterly dictates?
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