U.S. Tax Dollars Fund Israel’s Military

I just returned from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, where I have witnessed firsthand our U.S. taxpayer dollars at work, perpetuating Israel’s military occupation and apartheid-like treatment of the Palestinian people.

I saw the destruction waged upon Palestinian towns by U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets and Apache helicopters. I viewed a mini-museum of tear-gas canisters fired into Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque, stamped “Made in USA.” I watched as Caterpillar bulldozers of the Israeli army--no doubt financed by some of the $3 billion annually received by Israel from the U.S.--headed down a road on the outskirts of Jerusalem to demolish without warning a newly built Palestinian nursery school and apartment building. And I viewed the remains of dozens of tiny cinder-block homes in desolate Gaza, bulldozed by the Israeli army, rendering their occupants refugees within their own refugee camps. And we wonder what makes these people so desperate and so bitter about the U.S. government?

I just received my $600 federal tax rebate check. I’m sending it to Palestine to right the wrongs inflicted by the thousands of tax dollars I won’t be getting back.

Riad Abdelkarim

Orange