29 August 2019: Close Palestinian Refugee Camps

Letter sent today to Representative Levin (my Member of Congress):

Dear Representative Levin,

Thanks for speaking with me at the Marian McClellan Birthday bash last week about promoting democracy within the Middle East as a way of promoting international stability, as well as helping the people of the region.

As an American Jew living in Southeast Michigan, which has a large Arab community, I am particularly interested in Israeli security and the "Palestinian problem". One glaring issue is the continued existence of 60+ refugee camps in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Gaza and the West Bank, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_refugee_camps. What steps can the US government, or your office, take towards moving Palestinians out of these camps, which appear to me to promote continued hostility and harsh living conditions for its residents? We don't have to solve all of the problems of the Middle East to start normalizing the lives of Palestinians by moving them into permanent housing. We cannot rely on the existing Palestinian leadership, which for 70 years has promoted Palestinian suffering as a vehicle to foster continued hatred of Jews and Israel, but has done little to actually improve the lives of their constituents.

What do you think?