America: Take A Stand On Justice

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 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 news stations 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 at least 800 unarmed Palestinians who were 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. Yasir 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. Compassionate people like Danny read these stories and feel sympathetic toward 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. My heart goes out to these people, too. I applaud people like Danny for caring, and I am confident that if he knew the full story, he would be more lenient toward the Palestinians.

The fact is that innocent Palestinian citizens 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. Also, research the treatment of the Palestinians by the Israeli soldiers in the occupied territories. Many Israelis refuse to serve in such areas because they know that the Palestinians are being oppressed and the Israeli soldiers are being driven to commit horrible deeds. This is a fact.

For example, the Israeli army has bulldozed many Palestinian houses. 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. This is only one example of how the Palestinians are mistreated.

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 civilian houses. In fact, an innocent woman was shot to death in the raid. What makes it even more horrible is most of these same people who had their houses ruined are also poor and survive on nearly $1 per day. Many of them had jobs in Israel but lost them after the Intifada began in October of 2000 and have been living in poverty since.

Before the Intifada, only 15 percent of Palestinians were unemployed. Now the unemployment rate is approximately 50 percent. Again, most of these people who were laid off were innocent citizens, entirely unrelated to the Palestinian militants. Not only that, but Israel used to receive about 95 percent of Palestinian exports, yet in recent years Israel has been cracking down on allowing these goods into the country. These are only a few signs that 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 that’s how the cycle begins. Israelis kill Palestinians for revenge, and Palestinians kill Israelis for revenge. When the victims are innocent, people everywhere become fueled by the injustice, and so the conflict continues. Until Palestinian, Israeli and American leaders can get their act together, there will not be and can not be a resolution.