As an American citizen I am writing to you out of
an even deeper sense of frustration, anger and concern over your
reaction to what you term "violence" in Occupied
Palestine.
It seems to me that you have forgotten that not so
long ago, our forefathers valiantly struggled and bravely fought
for their own independence and freedom from British oppression.
Poorly armed and for the most part, not trained in the tactics of
warfare, these American colonists stood fast against a far
superior British army.
Until now, Americans celebrate the victory their
forefathers won from British tyranny. On July 4, we dedicate and
honor those brave warriors who died so that we can be free. We
celebrate our independence with fireworks and we remember with
pride those bloodstained fields were our countrymen sacrificed
their lives so that their children and their children’s children
could live in a land free from oppression.
But now when you see Palestinian children die in
the street, you turn cold-heartedly away and denounce these
Palestinian Davids as terrorists. When you see heavily armed
Israelis soldiers grab young Palestinians who scream in terror as
they are being dragged away to torture and prison, you pretend not
to hear their cries or see the blood that the Israelis beat out of
them.
Surely stones thrown by small hands are no match
for gunboats, helicopters, armored jeeps and army tanks. Surely
constant bombarding of Palestinian civilian homes and medieval
trenches dug around Palestinian cities to cut them off from one
another is no match for basically unarmed demonstrators.
Palestinians are collectively punished in such inhuman and
barbaric ways that it is difficult for the rational mind to
understand, yet you call Palestinians fighting for their freedom
and a state of their own "terrorists" while you call the
brutal suppression of these freedom fighters as an aggression
against innocent Israeli citizens. I think you have things a bit
confused here. It is Israeli gunboats, helicopters, armored jeeps
and tanks that bombard Palestinian homes on Palestinian land not
the other way around. Most of the over 400 dead are Palestinian
and a great deal of these are children. More than 20,000
Palestinians have been injured and many of the wounded sustain
permanent disabilities. Many children have lost a limb or two and
many more have lost an eye or eyes. Many of the children injured
were not even throwing stones but were shot on the way to or from
school, while playing in the street or while inside their homes.
You speak about the PLO as instigating your
definition of "violence," but you are not outraged about
the real violence that is constantly waged against the Palestinian
civilians. You honor Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon when you
know that he already has the blood of innocent Palestinian
civilians on his hands from his former atrocities such as Sabra
and Shatella and is now waging a war of genocide against the
Palestinian people. Yet either you do not care or you are too
senile or drunk or drugged or something else must be seriously
wrong with you that you cannot see or do not want to see the
truth.
Do you deny the truth so that you can keep your
seats in Congress? Are you so willing to sell your souls to the
devil that you condone and allow the killing and maiming of
children to continue because these children are not your own? Will
condemning the PLO and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat win you
more Jewish votes? Is this what it is all about? Is there no
honest man among you who will stand up for the truth no matter
where it leads him?
If anything should be reassessed, it should be the
way you treat Israeli officials and Israeli atrocities. If
anything should be affirmed or reaffirmed, it should be US
relations with Israel. If any country in the world should have
sanctions imposed against it, it should be Israel and none other.
And if any leader should not be allowed to enter America it should
be Sharon and if any embassy should be banished from American
soil, it should be the Israeli one.
Furthermore, Israelis never offered the
Palestinians anything more than they deserved. What Israelis were
offering prior to the Intifada al-Aqsa was less than 22% of
original Palestine and even this small amount is full of Israeli
settlements that you endorse and support with American tax money.
Palestinians did not chose violence over peace and the Intifada
was not a result of opting for war but because of the continued
brutality of the Israeli government and because even before he was
prime minister, Ariel Sharon intruded into the Muslim holy place,
al Harem al Sharif with more than 1000 Israeli troops. He did this
on purpose because he knew the Palestinians would be outraged.
This was his excuse to provoke the Palestinians and when the
Palestinians rise up against Sharon’s brutal and inhumane
slaughter of the indigenous inhabitants of Palestine, you are
amazed and angered.
This is a Holocaust being waged against a civilian
population. Sharon would love to either kill what is left of the
Palestinian population or drive them out of their country and off
their land. You have failed to see the homes that have been
demolished, the trees that have been uprooted, the farms that have
been destroyed, the ambulances that are full of bullet holes while
carrying the wounded to hospitals.
You do not see, you do not want to see Palestinian
blood running in the streets of Palestine. But as long as you
condone such evil acts and such crimes against humanity, the blood
of the innocents indelibly stains your hands and poisons your
hearts.
I suggest you take a long hard look at yourselves
and instead of being outraged at the Palestinians who are fighting
for freedom just as our forefathers did, do your best to stop the
mass slaughter of the Palestinian people. As long as you do
nothing, you should hang your heads in shame for you are criminals
yourselves and are as guilty as Sharon. It is time to stop
punishing the victim and rewarding the killer.
