Arab American Leaders Urge Bush Administration to Push for Immediate Ceasefire

Administration Criticized for Lack of Active Engagement, Slow Response to Crisis

Washington, D.C. — Arab American leaders from across the country gathered in Washington, D.C. Wednesday and urged the Bush Administration to immediately seek a ceasefire in the spiraling violence in Lebanon, Israel and the Gaza Strip that has claimed hundreds of innocent lives.

At an Emergency Summit on the Crisis in the Middle East, organized by the Arab American Institute (AAI), more than 100 Arab American leaders from across the country called for:

An immediate ceasefire in Lebanon, Israel and Palestine,
The United States should immediately deploy a high ranking Administration official or envoy to negotiate an immediate ceasefire and set conditions for comprehensive peace.
Increased assistance for badly needed relief and humanitarian aid to Lebanon and Palestine and aggressively press for the resumption of peace negotiations.

For the Bush Administration to take steps to strengthen the nascent democratic efforts in Lebanon and Palestine.

“The situation in Lebanon and Palestine is critical and demands that the Bush Administration immediately engage in a constructive peacemaking effort,” said AAI President James Zogby. “Daily we hear of the deaths of innocent civilians on both sides of the borders and the systematic destruction of Lebanon’s and Gaza’s infrastructure. We are now at a point where a humanitarian crisis is unfolding in Lebanon. At the same time, the dire situation of the Palestinians in Gaza remains unaddressed by the Bush Administration and the world at large.”

The Bush Administration has been slow to act, not only in trying to stem the violence and devastation of the Lebanese and Palestinian infrastructure, but also in securing the safe evacuation and passage of thousands of American citizens caught in the fighting.

Israel’s use of disproportionate force, including the targeting of Lebanese and Palestinian infrastructure, has taken a terrible toll. In Lebanon, the bombing of the Beirut International Airport and bridges has devastated what was a fragile but recovering economy. In Gaza, the persistence of the Israeli stranglehold and suffocation of the Palestinian economy and population has led to the imprisonment of 1.4 million civilians, among them the elderly, women, and children who are in dire need of food and medical care.