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Hala J. GoresIsraeli writer Zvi Raanan said in a recent In My Opinion piece ("Misguided views on Israel," April 12) that he opposes discussion of Israel's "perceived past sins."
No, Mr. Raanan, the expulsion in 1948 of more than 750,000 Palestinian men, women and children, including some of my relatives -- and the killing and maiming of thousands more -- because they were not Jewish, is not a "perceived sin." It is a historical fact documented by many, including Israeli historians. It is the core injustice of the region and one that occurred within the lifetimes of many people still living today. Moreover, Israel's continuation of this ruthless policy of ethnic exclusion is at the center of today's conflict.
Raanan states that "Arabs who still live in Israel [the small remnant who were not forced out in 1947-49] are rightful citizens of Israel."
First of all, please stop denying us our name -- we are Palestinians. Secondly, we are systematically discriminated against by Israel. More than 20 Israeli laws favor Jews over Palestinian citizens of Israel. I grew up in a Christian family in Nazareth. My family had lived there for generations; I grew up with elders telling me stories of ancestors who heard in person the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.
When I was 10, my family left Israel for Oregon (sponsored by relatives who lived in St. Helens) because of the oppression we faced as Christian Palestinians in the Jewish state. At the airport, I was taken away from my mom, who had no power to intercede, and placed in a small room, and there, terrified and humiliated, was strip-searched by an Israeli official. Such strip searches were common for Christian and Muslim "rightful citizens" of Israel; they still occur today.
In Israel, there are more than 50 villages inhabited by Palestinians that have been there for centuries. Israel has decreed these "unrecognized villages" and notified the families that their homes will be demolished because they were "built illegally." Thousands of homes of Palestinians who are Israeli citizens have been destroyed. Although these villagers are citizens of Israel, they receive no state services such as electricity, running water, sewer, access roads, health or educational facilities.
Similarly, thousands of Palestinian citizens of Israel have been decreed "present absentees," Israel's Orwellian phrase for Palestinians whose land and homes Israel has confiscated for Jewish-only habitation.
Raanan proposes a solution to Mideast violence that he claims is "mutually beneficial" but that tilts heavily toward Israel -- at the expense of both Palestinians and Americans.
Raanan claims that a previous op-ed column by Alison Weir, director of the nonprofit group If Americans Knew, is misinformed, but fails to point out any inaccuracies in her piece ("The truth about Israel," April 5).
He also terms it "vicious," apparently because she suggests that American taxpayers stop funding Israeli brutality that, most recently, killed 1,417 Gazans in three weeks. During this period, Palestinian resistance groups killed nine Israelis, six of them soldiers -- and this occurred only after Israel had repeatedly broken the cease-fire.
While the news media focus on the one Israeli kidnapped by Palestinians (a captured soldier), they fail to report that Israel has kidnapped thousands of Palestinian men, women and children, and that 11,000 are being held in abusive Israeli prisons; the Times of London first exposed Israel's regular use of torture 30 years ago.
It is time for American taxpayers to refuse to allow our tax money to be used in Israel's failed, tragic and self-destructive policies that fund criminal actions. Only when Israel no longer has a blank check from Americans will Israeli leaders finally negotiate in good faith to find a fair and lasting peace for all the peoples of our holy land.
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