What is Israel trying to hide?

THANK YOU for printing Yousef Munayyer's excellent op-ed "Ignoring the plight in Gaza."

As Munayyer stated, few Americans are aware that Gaza is a locked prison in which people are denied sufficient food, clean water, fuel, medicine, and access to medical care. Children, who make up half the population, are severely malnourished, and the entire population is traumatized and depressed.

I was recently among a group of international health professionals and academics who were turned away when we tried to enter Gaza to see for ourselves the impact of the siege on the population.

Israel, which earlier prevented Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Jimmy Carter from entering Gaza, detained and then deported Richard Falk, the UN special rapporteur, when he arrived at the airport in Tel Aviv on Dec. 15.

What is Israel trying to hide? US taxpayers, who subsidize its actions at about $3 billion a year, should demand to know, and call for an immediate end to this inhuman collective punishment.

Nancy Murray
Cambridge