Letter to Governor Brown on Partnership with Israel on Economic development, Research and Trade

After seeing this article, “Gov. Jerry Brown brags on signing historic agreement with Netanyahu in Silicon Valley,” here is the letter I wrote, you should write one too.

Dear Governor Brown,

I am against our state entering into an international agreement with Israel while there is a tremendous amount of concern over the treatment of the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank. We as a state should not choose to condone the illegal settlements and potentially internationally criminal war tactics committed by Israel.

Israel appears to be weakening in regards to relations with the US, EU and many other countries, and my concern is that now that the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement is working and finally about to bring a change for peace in the Middle East through the Palestinians plight gaining recognition, Israel is reaching out to the states, such as ours.

Are we as a state going to work with business entities located in the settlement areas? I would like a response to this question because it must be clear to Californians what we are getting involved with.

The EU has already prevented funding from being being awarded to Israeli projects and entities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and exclude any Israeli entity with activity in the OPT from participating in EU financial instruments such as loans.

Is California going to be their new funding source and provide them with the dollars that are being held back from Europe and others? Are we going to provide the educational exchanges that are being boycotted by other American universities and colleges? If so then we are condoning, as a state, the basic apartheid of the Palestinian people. When bulldozers destroy the homes of Palestinians, we as a state are complicit then, and with operations like “Cast Lead,” which occurred in 2008, we are enabling them to continue to happen. Please review what happened back then as well as the ongoing extra judicial killings that happen almost daily. This is a repugnant and disgusting slaughter of people who are in fact Semites.

It was also disgusting recently that the Israeli government prevented fuel from reaching a waste water treatment plant in Gaza and that raw sewage was allowed to flow on the streets. Are we OK with that?

I ask you to review this agreement you are signing on Wednesday, and see if you really would like California to be complicit in the apartheid of the Palestinian people.

Sincerely,

Ann Diener

A Resident of Vista, CA