What is it Palestinians really want?

Charley Reese

Commentary

Published in The Orlando Sentinel on November 16, 2000

You're probably wondering what it is these Palestinians over

there want. Well, even if you aren't wondering about it, I'll tell you

anyway. They want the same thing the Founding Fathers of this

country wanted: freedom.

You see, in 1967, Israel fought a war with Syria, Jordan and Egypt

and won it right handily in about six days. In the process, it

occupied the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.

Jordan had illegally annexed the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Egypt controlled Gaza.

The past 33 years, the Palestinians in those areas have lived under

Israeli military occupation. Israel has no legal claim to any of their

territory, including East Jerusalem. The United Nations has passed

a number of resolutions upholding the Palestinians' claims and

their right to self-determination. Bitter Harvest by Sami Hadawi

has a good account of these resolutions.

Americans, of course, don't know what it's like to live under

military occupation. Palestinians must at all times carry special

identity cards. Their cars must have a special license tag. They

effectively have no rights. Their land has been confiscated and

Jewish settlements built on it. Their own houses have been

demolished or blown up. Olive tress hundreds of years old have

been bulldozed. Palestinians frequently are placed under

"closure," which means that they cannot travel to get to their jobs.

Often they are placed under curfew, which means that they

cannot leave their houses for any reason.

You can't do anything but sit inside your house until your foreign

occupier gives you permission to leave. Whenever they protest

these indignities, some are shot dead, and even more stringent

punishments are imposed on the survivors. The Israeli

human-rights organization B'Tselem has documented much of

this abuse, as have Christian observer groups.

During the most recent upheaval, according to the British

newspaper The Independent, 191 Palestinians have been killed,

and the wounded number more than 5,000. The same article

states that 24 Israelis have been killed. Snipers have shot many of

the Palestinians, including children. Amira Hass has written

poignantly of this practice in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. Israel

recently has been condemned by Amnesty International and the

United Nations Commission on Human Rights. Physicians for

Human Rights recently condemned the use of excessive force by

the Israeli Defense Force

A British newspaper editorial recently observed that if the

Palestinians were black, the world would be united in

denouncing Israel as a rogue state. Unfortunately, the

Palestinians are not black. Moreover, the Israeli spin-doctors are

so skillful and the Israeli lobby is so powerful that they have

managed to convince most Americans that Israel is the victim of

aggression.

In fact, more American sailors died on the USS Cole than Israeli

soldiers during the recent fighting, as of this writing. Apparently

Israelis define aggressors as 14-year-olds armed with slingshots. I

think that any man who can frame the face of child in his

telescopic gunsights and kill him is a filthy animal who doesn't

deserve to walk on this earth.

I've heard many tragic stories of Jewish children being shot by

soldiers during the Holocaust. I fail to see any difference between

a Jewish child being shot and a Palestinian child being shot. I fail

to see any difference in the children. I fail to see any difference in

the soldiers.

Americans who fail to speak out against these crimes being

committed against the Palestinians with our money and with our

government blocking any relief by the United Nations are

accessories to the crimes. Remember: There is a God. And, sooner

or later, there is always justice.