Violence in the recent Palestinian/Israeli conflict has so far claimed the lives of over 350 Israeli Jews and wounded over 11,000 others. The latest incidents took place in the early pre-dawn hours as Palestinian Defense Forces (PDF) shot and killed six Israelis, three of whom were under 14 years old. The actions were acts of defense in response to Israeli civilians throwing stones. Four Israelis were also badly injured with gunshot wounds in the eye.
Palestinian Prime Minister Yasser Arafat once again called on the Israelis to stop the violence. He once again pledged Palestine's unwavering commitment to peace and called on the Israeli people to "stop their acts of terrorism against Palestinian civilians and PDF personnel".
"Deploying our Markaba tanks, our Apache and Cobra gun ships, and the closure of Israeli territories are all essential measures to protect the security of the Palestinian people," he added. Asked why he was using such heavy force against the Israeli civilians who are for the most part unarmed, he said "the Jews need to be taught that they cannot endanger Palestinian lives."
Praising the policy of restraint practiced by the PDF, who are the most powerful army in the Middle East, Prime Minister Arafat said that if it took the "killing of two thousand more Israelis" to put an end to Jewish rioting and terror, he would do so.
He also criticized the Israeli people for forcing their children into the streets to throw stones at PDF personnel. "Jewish parents do not feel the same way about their children as we Arabs do. They do not love their children or hold the same values we Arabs do. They prefer to incite sympathy from the media so they don't care if they die and it makes us look bad," he said bitterly.
Meanwhile, the Israeli authority chairman Ehud Barak responded angrily to this comment by stating that he believed it was a racist accusation to make about the Israeli people. He added that the Jewish people are very family-oriented people and do indeed care very deeply about their children. He claims the majority of them are very fearful for their children's safety and do not want them out throwing stones.
The word on the street in Palestine is very bitter. "We are the chosen people and the Israelis have to accept that. God promised us this land. We have an attachment to it. The Israelis can go live in Russia or Africa where there is room for them. There are large Jewish communities there that would welcome them," says Palestinian settler Ahmed Jumairah, age 35, who is living on land conquered from Israel by the Palestinians.
Much attention within Palestine is being focused now on the shift in power that will occur in a couple of weeks. Prime Minister Arafat's term is coming to an end and his political opponent Ahmed Yassin of the Hamas party is leading him by 20 percent in Palestinian polls. The Israelis are opposed to Yassin's leadership because he is well known for his anti-Jewish sentiment and his total inflexibility towards making concessions towards the Israeli people. The Israeli people also cite Yassin's orchestration of violent attacks against Jewish civilians in the past that claimed thousands of lives through bloody massacres that left hundreds and hundreds of women and children dead. Yassin is quoted as saying that he believes "the Jews need to be destroyed." The Israeli people believe he will completely wipe out any hope for peace and cause increased oppression and suffering for the Israeli people.
Numerous Palestinian, American, and European human rights organizations like Amnesty International and the UN have accused the Palestinians of using excessive and brutal force against the Israelis. Despite the fact that there are some Israelis using guns against the Palestinians, the majority of them are only armed with stones. These human rights groups claim there is an extraordinarily imbalance of force between both sides because the Palestinians are employing lethal force and illegal arms against the Israelis and are following a shoot-to-kill policy.
They cite the extraordinary number of Israeli children who were shot while not even involved in clashes. They cite the 11,000 injured Jewish people, one third of whom will be crippled for life. They also cite the killing of ambulance personnel and the blockage of roads to prevent ambulances from reaching Israeli civilians who are injured by Palestinian gunfire. They speak of particular cases of Jewish women who went into labor and lost their babies because they were prohibited by Palestinian soldiers from reaching hospitals in time. Some were told that if they had just reached the hospital 20 minutes earlier they would have saved their child.
Israeli leader Ehud Barak reiterated his refusal to stop his people from protesting. He claims the uprising will continue until Israeli rights are recognized. "The Israeli people lived in this land for 14 centuries until we were forced out by the Palestinians. We were kicked out of our beds at night by gun point and told never to return". He added, "the Israeli people have been living in poverty in appalling refugee camps for the past 50 years within occupied Israel. We have no state of our own and within our occupied land, the Palestinians are building hundreds of illegal settlements and inviting Muslims from all over the world to settle in them. They are tearing down our homes that we have lived in for centuries! Within Palestine we are denied equal rights even though Palestine is a democracy. We are not entitled to the same jobs, same homes and we have to pay more taxes and serve heavier jail sentences than the Palestinians. How is this fair? This is not justice!"
The Israelis lost 78 percent of their land to the Palestinians in 1948 after the British mandate ended. Then in 1967 they lost the remainder of Israel through a war. This land is labeled "occupied" because of the inadmissibility and illegality of acquiring land from another people through force. The Jewish people dream of establishing their own state in the pre-1967 border but the Palestinian leadership is apprehensive about handing it over because they fear for the safety of the Palestinian people that they have labeled as their priority.
Hopefully the reader has felt confused throughout this article - the statistics do not match up to the current predicament of the Israelis. These injustices have actually happened to the Palestinians. This article portrays the reality of the lives of the Palestinian people. The Israeli people should never have to suffer through such injustice, so why do the Palestinians have to? Is a Palestinian life not worth as much as an Israeli one? Information for this article was taken from the Miftah organization (www.miftah.org).
Abboud Kayyali is a freshman who has not yet declared a major. He is an officer in the Arab Students Association. Fahed Al Fourouki is a senior majoring in economics and international relations. Dina Karam is a senior majoring in sociology. She is president of the Arab Students Association.
