Israeli oppression

AMERICANS typically perceive Israel as a beacon of democracy in the Middle East, surrounded by hostile Arabs. This idea, one the U.S. media usually advocates, paints an inaccurate picture and disguises the truth of the situation. Since Israel was created in 1948, the Israeli government has oppressed and terrorized the Palestinians. The United Nations Partition Plan of 1947 allocated half of Palestine for the creation of a Jewish state. According to former U.S. Congressman Paul Findley, "The Palestinians, as was their right, rejected the plan because it granted the Jews more than half of Palestine despite the fact that they made up only one-third of the population and owned 6.59 percent of the land." In the 1948 and 1967 wars, Israel confiscated all of Palestine and to this day continues to occupy all of Palestine, including the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. Israeli troops unlawfully remain in Syria's Golan Heights, and in parts of Southern Lebanon. Ironically, in an effort to escape oppression, the Israelis have created a state that commits the same atrocities toward the Palestinians.

Six million Palestinians live in exile today. Some have emigrated to foreign countries, while others live a life of internal exile under Israeli occupation. The Israeli government continues to oppress Palestinians living under Israeli occupation and undermines attempts to create an independent Palestinian state. The Israeli government builds illegal settlements on Palestinian land, damages the Palestinian economy, deliberately isolates Palestinian towns and refuses to abide by international law. In his book "The Question of Palestine," Palestinian scholar and Columbia University Professor Edward Said comments, "most Americans who feel they must declare their support for Israel as a state have no idea that the Palestinians lived where Israel now is, and are refugees not because they are anti-Semites, but because the Zionists simply kicked many of them out."

In their attempts to establish a Jewish state, the Zionists terrorized the Arab population of Palestine to make them flee. As stated in the Red Cross Report of Deir Yassin, in 1948 the Israeli Irgun force, led by Menachem Begin, brutally slaughtered 254 of the 700 inhabitants of the village of Deir Yassin. The villagers killed were mostly old men, women and children. The Zionist forces widely publicized this massacre to instill fear in the Palestinians and make them flee Palestine. Once they fled, the Israeli government used the Absentee Property Law (1950) and the Land Acquisition Law (1953) to confiscate Palestinian property and to allocate it to new Jewish immigrants. This week marks the 40th anniversary of another unjust massacre committed by the Israeli army. In the last week of October, 1956, the Israelis surrounded the Palestinian village of Kafr Qassim and imposed a curfew on its inhabitants. Since many of the villagers were working in the fields while the curfew was imposed, they had no way of knowing about it. The Israeli army employed the curfew to "justify" the slaughtering of 51 unarmed, unsuspecting Palestinians returning from work under the pretense that they had violated the curfew.

Today, the Israeli government continues illegal and oppressive actions against the Palestinians. The Israeli government occupies Arab lands and destroys Palestinian buildings to construct unlawful settlements on this land. The current Likud government in Israel opposes an autonomous Palestinian state, and refuses to abide by past agreements, such as the removal of Israeli troops from the Palestinian town of Hebron.

Furthermore, several Israeli blockades prohibit the free movement of Palestinians and Palestinian goods. Because of these barricades, many Palestinians are unable to reach their places of employment, and consequently cannot make money to support their families. These "checkpoints" also prohibit the free passage of trucks containing Palestinian produce, which causes the goods to spoil, further damaging the Palestinian economy.

The United States exacerbates this situation by continuing to give Israel more than $3 billion a year in aid. Israel uses American tax dollars to build illegal settlements, undermine the Palestinian economy, and violate the basic human rights of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation. These actions clearly obstruct the creation of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, which would include the return of Arab lands occupied by force and the creation of a completely autonomous Palestinian state. As citizens of the United States, we have an obligation to do something to help rectify this situation. I implore you to educate yourself about the Israeli oppression of Palestinians and to write your congressmen to express your concerns.

The United States has the ability to pressure Israel and the current Netanyahu government into taking solid actions toward a just peace with the Palestinians. As long as the Israeli government continues to undermine the flourishing of a Palestinian state, there will be no lasting peace in the Middle East. The United States government constantly stresses the importance of peace in the Middle East. If the desire for peace is sincere, the U.S. must act as a fair mediator and treat all parties equally. At least 69 UN Resolutions passed by the United States denounce Israel's behavior, yet the United States does little or nothing to ensure that Israel abides by these resolutions.

The United States can begin to act more justly by demanding that Israel adhere to international law, by condemning the unlawful treatment of the Palestinians and by allocating monetary support in a more equal manner.

(Samia El-Mahdi is a third-year College student and a member of Students for a Free Palestine.)