I am writing to you in response to the article published on Jan. 13 in the opinion section titled, “Extreme reaction to Israel’s attacks undeserved,” by Lazarus Austin.
The article (although it reflects the opinion of the author) is full of misconception and false facts that were proven in the media to be the complete opposite.
Israel has occupied the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and Gaza since 1967, although the United Nations resolutions ordered them to withdraw, but still they didn’t.
Israel is still claiming Jerusalem as its capitol, but no country in the world accepts that. There are no foreign embassies in Jerusalem (not even the U.S.); all of them are in the city of Tel Aviv.
People in the West Bank and Gaza don’t have the freedom to travel from one town to another; a 15-minute trip takes usually [more] than 50 minutes due to many Israeli checkpoints on the West Bank and Gaza (prior to the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in 2006), not to mention the difficulty to travel abroad to nearby countries like Jordan and Egypt.
Access to education is available but difficult due to the checkpoints. From 2001 to 2002, sometimes the access to Birzeit University (a university in the West Bank) was impossible for students, faculty and staff members; students had to study the classes on their own.
Regarding the latest action of Israel against the Palestinians in Gaza, Israel made a siege around the Gaza Strip and forbid people from leaving it. They controlled the entrance of medicine, not to forget the fuel necessary to operate medical equipment in hospitals. A hospital is a place where sick people seek treatment; people started to die slowly. Israel is the side that broke the ceasefire. Actually, Rick Sanchez, a CNN anchor, did the research and announced that on air.
Israel is killing children, women, civilians and senior citizens. Israel claimed that [Palestinian citizens] were used by Hamas as shields, but that was not verified by any independent source. Israel bombed mosques, schools and hospitals. They kept using heave weapons with tanks and helicopters, while most of the Palestinians are unarmed or armed with shotguns or rifles.
The actions of Israel are condemned by most human rights organizations. Israel is creating another holocaust, this time with Palestinians as the victims. More than 1,000 people died (most of them are children and women), and at least 4,000 are wounded. Writing such an article is justifying the killing of innocent people.
In response to your claim that Palestinian people want to kill the Jewish people, this is 100 percent incorrect. It is historically known that before the establishing of the state of Israel, Muslims, Christians and Jews lived peacefully, in Palestine, side by side; actually in Palestine around 5,000 Jews live in the West Bank in the city of Nablus. I want you to be aware that there are many Jewish people who don’t recognize the state of Israel. Being a Jew is totally different than being a Zionist. You can check this Web site: nkusa.org. (I do recognize the right of the state of Israel to exist, as stated in the Oslo Accords.)
Finally, the purpose of this response is to show the MSU community that there is another side of the story that they might not be aware of. Being a journalist, you need to search for the truth and expose your self to all opinions and try to find where is the truth. It seems that the author is blinded by the misconception he hears and watches in the media without trying to understand the roots of the conflict and what drove the region in the Middle East to this chaos.
Hazem Abusara is a graduate student in physics and astronomy. He can be contacted at [email protected].