Howard Golden’s reply (‘What Palestinians truly want’, June 5) to my article ‘Oppressed turns oppressor’ (May 25) was very informative. It was extremely interesting but very one-sided.
As an observer living in a country were Jews and Arabs have been living among us peacefully for hundreds of years, I believe my views were and will be objective and fair. The saying that ‘might is right’ and that history always gives credit to the victor very much apply to his reply.
Lord Balfour, representing the British imperial government, only had a mandate from the League of Nations to administer, not to distribute or give away lands. He did not have the authority or any mandate to make a statement on an Israeli State. The United Nations, though, had such authority and, in 1947, it gave its approval for a Jewish State in the Palestinian territory. Surprisingly, it was the Soviet Union that first gave its support, before America and the rest.
Though it had approved the State of Israel, the UN has been continuously condemning the expansion of Jewish territory taken from the Palestinians in the 1967 war and even instructing Israel to withdraw from such areas.
Israel has ignored all directives, with the assistance of the USA, which vetoes anything that concerns Israel. Instead, Israel kept expanding its territory by occupying Palestinian land and building new housing zones. Jewish settlers in these areas ban the Palestinians from farming their fields. The demand for permits and daily inspections by army officers are a daily occurrence for Palestinian farmers when going for work.
Passes are issued by the Jewish authorities not to all land owners but only to those that are approved by the powers that be.
If this is not a case of forced occupation and oppression by Jews on Palestinians, then the whole world is wrong and only the Israelis are right.
The Jewish community has such a hold on American politicians and politics that, incredibly, Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the US Congress/Senate without consulting or obtaining the approval of the US President.
Golden said that, until 2005, hundreds of (?) Palestinian suicide bombings and terrorists attacks killed nearly 1,000 innocent people. That, he said, was why Israel erected the fence and not for territory expansion purposes.
The Jews should let the Palestinians go free and enjoy their dignity and their land
The Palestinians, he says, are terrorists but not the Jews. Let’s go back to before the Jewish State came into being in 1947. I am positive he has heard of Zeev Dov, who later renamed himself as Menachem Begin (the sixth Israeli prime minister), leader of the Zionist Militant Group (a terrorist unit) who declared a revolt in 1944 targeting the British and the Arabs in Palestine. I believe the last action was the bombing of the King David Hotel, which housed the British Military headquarters.
Golden listed many Palestinian wrongs. Let me remind him of the massacres that took place in Sabra and Shatila between 16-18 June, 1982 when thousands of Palestinian civilians, men, women and children were brutally slaughtered and their refugee camps wiped out. In command was Elie Hobrika, a Phalange Lebanese intelligence officer, allied to the Israeli forces and a liaison officer with Mossad.
The Israeli army, headed by Ariel Sharon surrounded the Palestinian refugees camps preventing anyone leaving or escaping as thousands of innocent people were massacred.
The UN concluded that Israel was behind it and held Sharon responsible for the massacre. Both Begin and Sharon became prime ministers as did David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, Shimon Peres, who all took part in military tactics prior to the creation of the Jewish State.
So what difference is there between what the Jewish people did to acquire their State and what the Palestinians have and are still doing now to retain the land that belongs to them?
The Palestinians have been oppressed for too long and it is about time they are given what is rightfully theirs.
Former US president Jimmy Carter had declared he knew Israel had the atomic bomb. The only Jewish person to confirm this was kept in a prison for many years and, when he was eventually released, repeated what he had said and was arrested again.
Is it right that one exposes and condemns the wrongs of others but blesses one’s own ills?
Golden declared that the Palestinians are the people who have been enjoying the best welfare worldwide for 67 years and added that Israel will be giving financial compensation for those Palestinians who have no hope of ever getting their land back.
He should realise that people would prefer making a living in a dignified manner rather than receiving financial assistance.
A point raised in Golden’s article was that civil rule is practised in Israel as even a president was given a jail sentence. It means this person was corrupt and had to be sentenced. This happens also in many third world countries.
History is always written by and through the eyes of the victor. Looking at the issue and the continuous discrimination they suffer from afar, most of us believe the Palestinians are being denied all the rights and privileges even in their own country. One can only listen with disbelieve what the present Israeli Prime Minister said before the last election, that his country will never allow a Palestinian State as if it were up to him.
Let’s all work for peace. Moses told the Egyptians: “Let my people go”, so too should the Jews let the Palestinians go free and enjoy their dignity and their land.