Dear Mr. President… Christ and the Christian message were born in my country, Palestine the Holy Land.

Dear Mr. President,

          Christ and the Christian message were born in my country, Palestine the Holy Land.  As the Head of the PLO Mission in Washington, I wish, on behalf of the Palestinian people, Moslems and Christians alike, to extend to you, Mr. President, to your family and to all Americans belonging to the Christian faith, our best wishes for a merry Christmas and a happy New Year 2006.

          Mr. President, for decades, our people have been yearning for the outside world to hear our cry for freedom out of captivity and bondage.  At a moment when the city of Bethlehem will be repeatedly mentioned in Churches and in houses in the four corners of the earth, how many are aware that the birth place of Jesus Christ has been totally caged in by the Apartheid Wall that strangulates the economy and suffocates the society?

          Mr. President, the international community including successive American Administrations have not recognized the illegal unilateral annexation of occupied East Jerusalem.  The world considers that in Jerusalem there are two national aspirations and three religious rights to be respected.  Today, on the eve of our Palestinian legislative elections, the Israeli government threatens to prohibit the exercise of the democratic rights of the inhabitants of East Jerusalem.  An unequivocal signal from you, Mr. President, will deter the Israeli government from undertaking this internationally unacceptable stance.

          Please accept, Mr. President, the expression of my highest consideration.

Your brother in the Christian faith

 

Afif Emile Safieh