End the occupation

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA. – We Americans are so fortunate! We are so blessed by the protections the Constitution gives us that many of us find it hard to imagine what it's like to live in a place where no such protections apply.
A place like the West Bank, or Gaza.

Amid the hoopla surrounding this week's visits to the White House by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Jordan's King Abdullah, Americans should remember that the 3.5 million Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza have lived under one version or another of foreign military occupation for nearly 35 years.

This situation makes assurance of their basic rights and liberties quite impossible. Such rights as may temporarily be "allowed" by the occupation authorities can – as we have seen recently – be trampled under the treads of advancing tanks at a moment's notice.