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Historians' Letter to President Obama and Members of Congress

In the face of the ongoing carnage in Gaza, members of Historians Against the War are circulating the letter below, with an initial list of signatories. We encourage you to sign it at http://historiansagainstwar.org/gaz and to quickly forward this message to fellow historians. As our numbers grow, we will seek opportunities to publicize and to forward to relevant officials.

We deplore the ongoing attacks against civilians in Gaza and in Israel. We also recognize the disproportionate harm that the Israeli military, which the United States has armed and supported for decades, is inflicting on the population of Gaza.

We are profoundly disturbed that Israeli forces are killing and wounding so many Palestinian children. Desperate conditions in Gaza resulting from Israeli policies have made effective evacuation of war zones virtually impossible. We regard as unacceptable the failure of United States elected officials to hold Israel accountable for such acts.

As we watch the death toll mount and observe the terror of the trapped inhabitants in Gaza, we call upon you to demand a cease-fire, the immediate withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, and a permanent end to the blockade so that its people to can resume some semblance of normal life. We urge you to suspend US military aid to Israel, until there is assurance that this aid will no longer be used for the commission of war crimes.

As historians, we recognize this as a moment of acute moral crisis in which it is vitally important that United States policy towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict change direction.

Signed (list in formation)

Ervand Abrahamian, City University of New York 
Bettina Aptheker, University of California, Santa Cruz 
Rosalyn Baxandall, SUNY Old Westbury, CUNY Labor School, Emerita 
Marc Becker, Truman State University 
Joel Beinin, Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History, Stanford University 
Eileen Boris, University of California Santa Barbara 
Paul Buhle, Brown University, retired 
Renate Bridenthal, Brooklyn College, Emerita 
Frank Brodhead, Independent Scholar 
Blanche Cooke, John Jay College, Graduate Center/City University 
Sandi Cooper, College of Staten Island/CUNY 
Max Dashu, Director, Suppressed Histories Archives, Richmond, CA 
Suzanne Desan, University of Wisconsin-Madison 
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, California State University, Emerita
Carolyn Eisenberg, Hofstra University
Sara M. Evans, Regents Professor, University of Minnesota, Emerita 
Stuart Ewen, Distinguished Professor, The Graduate Center, CUNY 
Kimberly Phillips-Fein, New York University
John Fitzgerald, Longmeadow School Committee, Longmeadow, Massachusetts
Linda Gordon, New York University 
Van Gosse, Franklin and Marshall University 
Carol S. Gruber, Paterson University of New Jersey, Emerita 
Walter Hixson, University of Akron 
Joan Hoff, Research Professor of History, Montana State University, Bozeman 
Temma Kaplan, Rutgers University
Rebecca E. Karl, New York University 
Stephen Leberstein, City College, Emeritus 
Zachary Lochman, New York University 
Staughton Lynd, Independent Scholar
Elaine Tyler May, Regents Professor, University of Minnesota 
Michele Mitchell, New York University 
Thomas K. Murphy, University of Maryland/European Division 
Mary Nolan, New York University 
Jim O'Brien, co-chair, Historians Against the War 
Kimberly Phillips-Fein, New York University
Margaret Power, Illinois Institute of Technology 
Ellen Schrecker, Yeshiva University, Emerita 
Naoko Shibusawa, Brown University 
Robert Vitalis, University of Pennsylvania
Beverly R. Voloshin, San Francisco State University 
Barbara Weinstein, Silver Professor of History, New York University 
Jon Wiener, University of California, Irvine 
Barbara Winslow, Brooklyn College/City University of New York  Larry Wittner, SUNY/ Albany

Please sign your name at:

http://historiansagainstwar.org/gaz

--
Margaret Power
Professor of History
Department of Humanities
Illinois Institute of Technology
3301 S. Dearborn St.
Chicago, IL 60616
312-567-6921