Occupation fuels violent reaction
The U.S. media coverage of the Middle East’s latest developments could not be more biased against the Palestinians. As a Palestinian-American, I feel compelled to share with you the other side of the story.
A little bit about Gaza, which is a 5-by- 12-mile coastal strip of land inhabited by 1.7 million Palestinians. It’s the world’s largest ghetto. Those born there cannot leave. Those who have left cannot return. Israel only allows 15 tons of food into Gaza per day, but the population needs 60 tons. In December of 2008, Israel massacred 1,400 Palestinians, ironically enough, three months after Israel’s defense minister vowed to put the Palestinians through a “holocaust.” The Gazan’s were left without electricity, running water or telecommunications for nine months because everything was destroyed. Not to mention Israel refused to allow humanitarian organizations until after the mess was cleaned up.
My fear is that this will happen again, and I am writing to inform you that it’s probably going to.
Recently Israel began another assault on the Palestinians in Gaza. They demolished the international media headquarters there, and destroyed all communications infrastructure. The goal is to cut Gaza off from the rest of the world so the atrocities perpetrated by the Israeli army will not be heard. Over 102 Palestinians have been murdered, including many children.
Ask any supporter of Israel and they’ll tell you that the Palestinians have brought this on themselves because they are “terrorizing” Israel. But they have it backwards: the reason there is violence is because there is an occupation. The cause? The Israeli military occupation of Palestine. The effect? A desperate resistance against that occupation, in a struggle for freedom and justice. Place yourself in Palestinian shoes, as an American. Would you sit on your hands if Canada invaded and did the same to us? Probably not.
The Palestinians have been stripped of their civil rights and dignity for 64 years. Enough is enough. End the occupation of Palestine, and there will be peace.
Hanna Kassis, Chicago
The writer is a Girard native currently attending The John Marshall Law School.
Comments
UPDATE: a cease-fire has been agreed upon between Hamas & Israel and 162 Palestinians were killed, 1,200 injured.
What all of the supporters of gaza and Hamas (a known terrorist group) seem to ignore is one simple fact. Israel was simply reacting to them lobbing missiles into their country. What about that simple fact is ignorable. Had Hamas not fired missiles, provided by Egypt this never would have occurred.
If the Palestinians can smuggle in rockets and guns, thru the tunnels they dug, WHY can't the smuggle in FOOD?
Using Isreal's logic, if my kid gets bullied at school I have the right to go and kill his entire extended family?
How about let's take all the Catholics, force them all to move to Campbell, build a wall around it, and if they even try to fight back we'll kill 10 for every one of ours who's lost. Sound like a good idea?
Toleration seems to be the key here. After 9/11/01 our intolerance caused the death of many including our own. If we had done nothing we could have saved many lives. Does it really work that way? So, if the Israelis allow themselves to be killed with no responce many lives could be saved?
The only reason civilians are being killed is because Hamas ( a terrorist organization) is placing their missile site in civilian areas. Using civilians as human shields is the act of a coward.
And the reason Hamas exists is because a bunch of Europeans decided that they'd like to take someone else's land as their own.
Still, how about my idea for the "Catholic problem"? Why don't we send them all to a walled in Campbell, and then when the Knights of Columbus try to fight back, we'll call them a terrorist group who targets innocent civilians?
Any takers?
;-) I think that's called "Belfast", Northern Ireland.
That's kind of the point I'm trying to make. Isreal's now well-established, just like the Ulsters. The problem is that there was already a group of people living on that land. Unlike Belfast, the Israel seems to be taking the Andrew Jackson approach to dealing with indigenous people. Still, there's always going to be intense animosity in situations like these.
You would think that of all the people, Jews wouldn't want to recreate a walled-in section where people of a different faith and ethnicity are herded into utter squalor, and not allowed to move freely about.
I wonder if the Warsaw uprising would be considered terrorism by those who support Israeli military action?
Sounds like someone has a problem with the Catholics?? What do Catholics have to do with this issue?? Not even a good comparison