21 October 2006

Hon. Condoleezza Rice
Secretary of State
Department of State
Washington, DC 20520

 

Dear Secretary Rice,

 

As members of Baltimore Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), we thank you for your efforts to reverse the onerous Israeli regulations imposed on Americans working in Palestine.  The recent imposition of new and dramatically restrictive visa regulations gravely threatens the viability of a Quaker school in Ramallah that has provided quality education to Palestinian children for nearly 120 years.

Ramallah Friends School was founded by North American Quakers in the 1880s and currently enrolls some 900 Palestinian children in grades K through 12. Consistent with the teachings of Quakers, the school promotes an ethic of nonviolence and its graduates have engaged in civic life in Palestine for decades, providing a voice for moderation in this turbulent region.  The school continues to be operated by American Quakers and receives support from Friends from throughout the United States.

Among the school’s staff are six U.S. passport holders—some of Palestinian origin, others not—working under three-month visas issued by Israel.  In the past, such visas were readily renewable, allowing staff to work throughout the academic year.  A recent change in policy now restricts the number of the three-month visas granted to a foreign passport holder to only one visa every twelve months.  Under this new policy, these teachers will not be able to renew or extend their three-month stay in Ramallah except after spending a year outside the county. 

The new restrictions gravely threaten the viability of the school. No U.S. passport holders would be able to teach for the full academic year.  Local teachers are not adequate substitutes for these Americans because the school depends on trained native speakers to deliver the curriculum which includes an international baccalaureate program.  According to the Head of School, “the school will literally collapse if suddenly these teachers were denied entry.”

The objectives that you and President Bush have articulated for this region cannot be achieved by policies that undermine the viability of institutions such as Ramallah Friends School.  To help insure that the school can educate the next generation of Palestinian leaders, we urge you to persuade the Israeli government to rescind its new visa policy. 

We acknowledge that these restrictions on Americans affect many institutions and individuals besides Ramallah Friends School and we hope your efforts will benefit many others as well.

We look forward to hearing from you on this critical matter.

Sincerely,

 

Michael Cronin, Clerk
Interim Meeting