Response To Pro-Israel Articles From Original Author

Speaking out against Israel's occupation of Palestine is like screaming in the dark. Uri Avnery an Israeli scholar notes how Palestinians are suffering from several cruel strokes of fate: The people that oppress them claim for themselves the crown of ultimate victimhood. The whole world sympathizes with the Israelis because the Jews were the victims of the most horrific crime of the Western world. That creates a strange situation: the oppressor is more popular than the victim. Anyone who supports the Palestinians is automatically suspected of anti-Semitism, a charge Jordan Fisher resurrects in his argument. This completely thwarts any sort of dialogue on the Israel/Palestine conflict.

With this creed of victimization Israeli supporters use in any critical dialogue about Israel, I was not surprised that at least three members of the Trinity community came forward to characterize my opinions as "anti-Semitic" or unproductive anger. These opinions show the shallow understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Sam Newman's nostalgic prose of his life altering visit to the land of milk and honey with the highest percent of home computers per capita in the world, or Lucy Schiffman's contradictory and simplistic: "love, can end this conflict" but "So stop hatin' on my torpedo candles" argument and of course Jordan Fisher's article charged with anti-Semitic claims.

I do agree that both Israelis and Palestinians are victims of violence-whether it is state sanctioned or guerilla warfare, death, pain and suffering occurs on both sides. The point of my article was not to deny this; however there is a lack of criticism or understanding of Israel's role in the conflict.

Fisher begins his article refuting my claim of "brutal occupation" by Israel by historically mentioning the territories "won" in 1967 War; yet he fails to mention the expulsion of Palestinians from their homes in 1948. Is forcing people out of their homes with tanks and grenades and then living in their houses and using their natural resources not considered an occupation? Throughout Israel's history, the state has deployed forced removal of Palestinian; the total 1948 refugee population is estimated at 5.5 million, including 4 million registered with UNRWA and 1.5 million not registered. In addition, there are 263,000 internally displaced (of 1948) and some 773,000 1967 displaced persons.

Newman lauds Israel as the largest absorbing nation of immigrants anywhere in the world. However, it is hypocritical when many Israelis and Zionists speak to European or American Jewry that they can immigrate to the "Promised Land" after 2,000 years of "exile", while Palestinians cannot return after only 60 years of forcible exile. Many of my close Palestinian friend's families still have their keys and land deeds written in both Arabic and Hebrew. They wait in hope that they will be able to return to their homelands, or villages.

I cannot understand how building settlements in Palestinian territories can be a step towards peace as Fisher makes high claims that "Israel sought to improve the life of the Palestinians. Israel helped modernize Palestinian infrastructure." Even after disengagement from Gaza, Israel retains effective military, economic, and administrative control (i.e., control over Gaza's borders, air and sea space, overall security, and international relations) over the Gaza Strip and therefore remains an occupying power under international law, with the army able to enter the area at will. Where is the freedom or "improvement of life" there?

The separation wall is a human rights violation; in 2004, the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel's construction of the separation barrier is illegal because it involves destruction/confiscation of Palestinian property and imposes severe restrictions on Palestinian movement, and that that Israel must "cease forthwith the works of construction of the wall being built in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and around East Jerusalem", return seized property and compensate Palestinian landowners whose interests have been damaged by its construction.

Israeli also violated of the Arms Export Control Act, which requires that US weapons only be used in "legitimate self defense," Israel used American equipment during its two invasions of Lebanon, killing 17,000 the first time and 1,000 more recently, the vast majority civilians. It used American-made cluster bombs in both invasions, again in defiance of US laws, causing the "most hideous injuries" one American physician said she had ever seen, and which, in one day in 1982 alone, resulted in the amputation of over 1,000 mangled limbs. According to Defense for Children International, Israel has "engaged in gross violations of international human rights and humanitarian law." Between 1967 and 2003, Israel destroyed more than 10,000 homes, and such destruction continues today.

Contemporary debate on the Israel/Palestine conflict must be able to supersede petty and false accusations by both sides of unproductive anger or charges of racism. This is not an argument of hatred for Israel and its mere presence as Fisher claims. This is a critical look at Israel's state sponsored, violent oppression against Palestinians. We, Palestinian supporters will continue to speak out against Israel's occupation, even if we are screaming in the dark abyss of American foreign policy, the flawed war on terror, human rights violations, and multinational military contracts.