Do you know Israel is a democracy? If you don’t, then apparently you don’t read The Daily Free Press. At least once a week some Pro-Israel student stresses that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East, as though the government’s domestic policies are the only means by which we should judge its character. If the best family man in the world is also a murderer, a thief and a liar outside his home, do we herald him as a magnificent father? Of course not. He would be portrayed as an abhorrent criminal and held accountable. But when a nation commits these crimes, why don’t we uphold the same standard? Instead, the United States ignores numerous violations of U.N. resolutions and funds Israel with billions in military aid.
The United States has the audacity to call Ariel Sharon a man of peace. This is the same man Israel found responsible for the massacres at Sabra and Shatila, where more than 1,000 unarmed civilians were slaughtered. This is the same man who opposes a Palestinian state and instead envisions a future where Palestinians are concentrated in tiny, disjointed portions of land separated from each other by Israeli settlements and highways. This is the same man who called for new elections in Israel after the Labor party broke away from his coalition because he was unwilling to shift funds designated for illegal settlements toward the weakening economy. This same man is the Prime Minister of Israel, the democracy you read so much about.
Although 6 million people inside Israel live in freedom, another 3.5 million living under Israeli military control are subjected to collective punishment, enduring a harsh curfew and very little, if any, freedom. And although this curfew prevents children from attending school, destroys the economy of a population whose average person lives on less than a dollar a day and strips away the Palestinians’ most basic liberties, it is not the only violation of human rights Israel perpetrates against the Palestinian people.
Last week, Israel demolished 22 houses in one day, destroyed a marketplace and demolished the home of a wanted militant, killing the 65-year-old tenant inside. However, these events underscore the full extent of Israeli terror. If you compare the number of innocents killed, you’ll clearly see that the Palestinian loss far exceeds that of the Israelis. To those who remember when the military fired into crowds of children, this comes as no surprise. And although some of the innocent Palestinians were killed by accident, many of them were killed when there was no threat facing the soldiers. Should the whole Palestinian society suffer death and destruction while their land and natural resources are stolen from them in front of their very eyes?
If Israel ended its illegal occupation and allowed the Palestinians to form a state more united than the three divided portions of land Barak offered, there could be peace. The Palestinians need to know life is worth living, but an increasing amount are concluding terrorism is the only way to combat a military backed by the world’s greatest superpower.
The BU divestment petition calls for making military aid to Israel conditional, which is not the same as disarming it. Instead, it would delay further funding until Israel ends the occupation. Not only would Israel be given support, but its thriving arms industry and current military capacity would ensure its survival until it was able to complete this task. Only then would Palestinians know that life is a gift and not a punishment. The backward reasoning that lures them toward terrorism would vanish, and both peoples would live in peace.
Steve DeRosa CAS ’03