America: Take a stand on Palestine

After reading Danny Baram’s article, “America: Take a stand on Israel”, I had to respond. It was immediately apparent to me that Danny has only been reading the mainstream American newspapers. Danny, I suggest reading your news from http://www.bbc.com, or if you are insistent upon reading America newspapers, at least read the New York Times. The problem is that you only have a one sided view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. These two newstations are less biased than your sources, and they could teach you a lot. Let’s get one thing straight: the Israeli army is as much of a terrorist organization as is the militant groups of Palestine. The way the American Heritage Dictionary defines terrorism, “The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons”, is also a more than fitting description of the Israeli army. Despite what anyone tells you, Israel has been and still is unlawfully occupying Palestinian territories according to the UN resolutions of 1967. Not only that, but Israel is currently lead by one of the worst war criminals alive today, Ariel Sharon. Israel itself found him indirectly responsible for the massacre of atleast 800 unarmed Palestinians who living in the refugee camps of Lebanon in 1982. When it was investigated, the UN actually estimated that approximately 2000 innocent citizens had been slain. Even now as I write this, survivors of the massacre are attempting to try Sharon in Belgium as a war criminal. Now, I know what you are thinking. Yasser Arafat is not much better. This is of course true. Virtually any newspaper in the country will show you the horrific acts Israeli citizens have suffered. Often times the newspapers report on specific stories about the innocent Israelis who died and the suffering that their families are feeling. Most of the time those stories are accompanied by pictures of people crying. As compassionate people, people like Danny read these stories and feel sympathetic towards the Israelis who have not only lost family and friends, but who also cannot heal from the loss because they continue to live in a region of violence. I applaud people like Danny for caring, and I am confident that if he knew the full story, he would be more lenient towards the Palestinians. The fact is America is and has always been a strong ally to Israel. This is true not only of the government but also of the media. However, we must overlook this and attempt to see the bigger picture. More innocent Palestinian citzens are killed than are Israeli citizens. Also, the amount of Palestinian women and children killed outnumber the amount of Israeli women and children killed. You don’t believe me? Look it up, I dare you. Just make sure you are not reading biased news which includes anything written by Arab, Israel, or American news reporters. Also, research the treatment on Israeli soldiers in the occupied areas of Palestine. Many Israeli soldiers themselves are refusing to serve in such areas because they understand that the Palestinians are being oppressed. This is a fact. For example, many Palestinian houses have been bulldozed by the Israeli army. One community was so disheartened by the demolition that they helped rebuild the house in a day. This is an amazing story of how Israelis and Palestinians came together to help a family in their time of need. However, the story does not have a happy ending because the same Israeli soldiers who watched them rebuild the house destroyed it the very next day. Although this is an individual story, it accurately describes the treatment of the Palestinians. Just recently the Israeli army raided refugee camps in search of weapons. They went from house to house knocking down walls to avoid going outside. Admittedly, some of them were houses of Palestinian militants, but most of them were houses of innocent civilians. What’s worse is that most of these same people who had their houses ruined are also poor, and survive on nearly $1.00 per day. Why are they so poor? Largely because most of them were working in Israel until the October of 2000 when the intifada began and Israel laid of most of its Palestinian workers. Before the intifada Palestinian unemployment was only about 15%. Now the unemployment rate is approximately 50%. Again, most of these people who were laid off were innocent citizens, entirely unrelated to the militants of Palestine. Not only that, but about 90 or 95% of Palestinian exports have gone to Israel, but in recent years Israel has been cracking down on allowing these goods into the country. The Israeli government needs major reform. By occupying Palestinian territories, they are demoralizing the inhabitants. The Palestinians feel helpless and respond to the oppression by sending suicide bombers and militants to kill Israelis. Often times citizens get caught up in the killings, and thats how the cycle begins. Israelis kill Palestinians for revenge and Palestinians kill Israelis for revenge. When innocent people die, people every where get fueled by the injustice, and the conflict continues. Until Palestinian, Israeli, and American leaders can get their act together, there will not be and can not be a resolution.