IN MAY OF this year, 82 former American diplomats wrote President George W. Bush to express their firm belief that his April 14 endorsement of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s unilateral “disengagement plan” was not in the best interests of the U.S., or Israel, or the Palestinians. Through his endorsement Bush had closed the door to negotiations with Palestinians and the possibility of a Palestinian state. His acceptance of the Israeli prime minister’s plan to reject the rights of three million Palestinians, to deny the right of refugees to return to their homeland, and to retain five large illegal settlement blocs in the occupied West Bank severely damaged longstanding U.S. Middle East policy. Even Israel’s Knesset refused to accept the plan that our president so quickly embraced.

Retired American diplomats—Republicans and Democrats alike—who care deeply about their country and its foreign policy continue to add their names to this letter (visit <www.wrmea.com> for the complete text and list of signatures).

Our initiative attracted a fair amount of attention in Europe and the Middle East, but little coverage at home. Nor did the White House or State Department ever reply to our requests for a meeting to discuss our concerns. Palestinians both here in the United States and in the occupied territories did respond to our letter, however. The Palestinian American Congress invited a delegation of diplomats and journalists from the Washington Report to visit Palestine and meet with President Yasser Arafat, who remains isolated and besieged in his demolished Ramallah compound.

From July 16 to July 23, we traversed the West Bank from Hebron in the south to Jenin in the north, wandering freely in Ramallah and elsewhere. The Gaza portion of our trip was canceled due to the unstable situation which developed after we arrived.

All the participants have extensive experience living in and working on the Middle East, and considerable familiarity with the issues generated by 37 years of occupation. Three retired U.S. ambassadors—Carleton Coon, Andrew Killgore and Edward Peck—led the delegation. Other former diplomats included Richard H. Curtiss, former chief inspector of the U.S. Information Agency; J. Brady Kiesling, who resigned from the U.S. foreign service on the eve of the war on Iraq in protest of President Bush’s foreign policy; and Eugene Bird of the Council for the National Interest. Washington Report on Middle East Affairs editors Janet McMahon and Delinda Hanley and photographer Michael Keating accompanied the diplomats. Palestinian Americans Said Hamad, his daughter Alia, and Nabil Zneid of the PLO office in Washington, DC, showed us sights we will never forget.

The delegation met with Palestinian citizens, educational, religious and municipal government officials, journalists, a U.S. consular officer and a member of the Knesset, and senior members of the Palestinian Authority, including President Arafat.

We also met with a staff member from the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem for an off-the-record discussion that seemed to focus on Palestinian failure to protect Israelis, as well as corruption and upheaval in Palestine’s government. The American official ignored Israel’s illegal occupation, failure to live up to its obligations and corruption woes—subjects readily discussed in Israel’s mainstream media. This was an officer from Jerusalem, moreover, charged with reporting information from Palestine, not an officer from Tel Aviv.

We tried to meet with Israelis, including a rabbi, a refusenik and others working for peace. We did meet with Israeli Knesset member Azmi Bishara. Due to horrendous communication and travel difficulties that both Americans and Palestinians living in the occupied territories take in their stride, our only face-to-face discussions with other Israelis were with soldiers and settlers, and an Israeli peace activist who works with Jeff Halper’s organization, the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, and monitors border crossings. But we probably met a greater number of Israelis than Americans on Israeli-sponsored trips meet Palestinians.

Delegates had many opportunities to observe portions of the wall, planned to enclose the entire Palestinian population in the world’s largest outdoor prisons, and the shattering effect it already has had on people’s lives. They also passed through, or were turned back from, several of the many checkpoints which surround every West Bank city, seriously impeding commerce as well as everyday existence.

It was an extremely chilling, deeply disturbing visit, made more compelling by the realization that even Americans reasonably confident of their knowledge of the situation have no idea of the grim, threatening reality of what is happening—and the inevitable results. It was a shock to see the extent of land seizures, tight travel restrictions and endless humiliation which Palestinians are forced to endure.

In this special report from Palestine we’ll try to share with our readers some of the many stories we heard and sights we saw. Nonetheless, one of the most sobering lessons of our visit was the awareness that words, and even photographs, cannot convey the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Palestine today.

Without touching Israel’s wall, it’s hard to grasp its size and horror. Words cannot describe the humiliation and fear you feel at a checkpoint as you stumble in the dark past rifle-toting soldiers and try to avoid razor wire and the broken pavement. You have to smell the garbage and see the piles of twisted cars and debris from demolished homes in the wall’s path that Palestinians are forbidden to clean up. You also need to lurch along Palestinian streets marred by potholes left by Israeli tanks or trenches perversely created by Israeli back hoes.

We challenge every American journalist, politician, teacher, religious leader and taxpayer to visit the occupied territories, talk with Palestinians, look into their eyes, and see what Israel is doing to its neighbor with our support. Find out the facts for yourself. It’s your responsibility to do so, since Israel is using your taxes to pay for the occupation and the wall.

What struck us was the urgency of the situation. Palestinians are in crisis, and many have reached the end of their rope. Their society and economy are disintegrating with every new section Israel adds to the wall and every new acre of prime agricultural land it steals.

Palestinian families, lands, jobs, educations, and futures are in jeopardy. Yet many still believe that the United States and the rest of the world will bring them justice before it’s too late. If they are wrong, and hopelessness and despair continue on the inexorable path to hatred, not only Palestinians, but Americans, Israelis and the entire world could pay a high price indeed.