Editor,
Having read Mandi Casey's column "Withdrawal hurts Israel," I could not believe how misinformed she is about the situation in Israel-Palestine.
She writes about how the recent disengagement of Jewish settlers in the Occupied Territory of the Gaza Strip is distressing for those who were forced to leave their homes, schools, businesses, etc. It seems she has forgotten, or does not care to acknowledge, what the Palestinians have had to endure since 1948.
Before that year, Palestinians and Jews actually lived relatively peacefully side by side. However, what occurred thereafter was the forced uprooting of 780,000 Palestinians from their homes to make way for the new inhabitants of the land - and this continues as we speak.
What land was left for the Palestinians was 22 percent of what they previously owned. And with the 1967 war, 500,000 Palestinians were again displaced. She writes that most of Gaza was under Palestinian autonomy. No Palestinian, inside or outside of Israel proper, enjoys full human rights.
In most cases, families are split apart, fathers cannot work, children cannot go to school, and food and medicine are far from reach. So much for Palestinian autonomy, when the Israeli army will still be in control of the air, land, and water surrounding the Gaza Strip. It is against international law - Geneva Conventions 1949, Article 49 - for a nation to place its own people in its occupied territories. The occupation of these territories is illegal to begin with under international law.
The media's coverage about the disengagement of Gaza is only bringing to attention the sad impact on the settlers. They are experiencing a minor version of what the Palestinians experience on a daily basis.
And while there may be terrorist attacks from the Palestinian side, there are also many such attacks, on top of Israeli military rule, from the Israeli side.
Don't forget the billions in aid that Israel annually uses to acquire tanks and build illegal settlements. Furthermore, Palestine, too, has a right to exist, but the conflict will continue so long as Casey and others like her continue to make the generalization that Palestinians are weapons-smuggling terrorists.
There are a significant number of Palestinians who fight non-violently for autonomy through the grassroots peace movement. But when their movements are restricted, as they have and will continue to be, they become discouraged.
Peaceful coexistence is the only answer, and passionate optimism must reign, for the world and its future cannot afford the alternative.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Deena Taji
UNM alumna
