From: Ismail Zayid

Sent: Thursday, October 26, 2000 4:42 PM

Subject: Re-writing history

Maclean’s Magazine Letters
777 Bay St.
Toronto

26 Oct., 2000

Dear Editor:

Barbara Amiel’s article ["Peace never had a chance", Oct. 30] is another classic example of Zionist re-writing of the history of the Palestine-Israel conflict. She is quite right that "There is no chance whatsoever of ‘peace’ in the Middle East", as long as Israel continues, with the support of her U.S. ally, to maintain an illegal occupation of Palestinian land, as well as Syrian land. The West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem have been under illegal Israeli occupation for the last 33 years, in defiance of international law and Security Council resolutions. This occupation is a brutal oppressive occupation, under which the Palestinians have been de-humanized, tortured, with their basic human rights denied, as confirmed by Amnesty International, U.N. Human Rights Commission and Israel’s own human rights organisations, including B’Tselem and The Israeli League for Civil and Human Rights. The Palestinians have seen their land illegally expropriated for the creation of Illegal Jewish settlements and thousands of their homes demolished, as well as a number of villages totally demolished, including my own, Beit Nuba.

Ms. Amiel says :"The Jews have given up land for peace, destroyed their settlements in Sinai". The land she talking about is Arab land and the Sinai settlements were illegal settlements on Egyptian land. The refugees, in 1948 and 1967, were systemically driven out from their homes by Israel, by massacre and intimidation, as documented by Israel’s own soldiers and historians. They have a fundamental right to return to their homes, in compliance with repeated U.N. resolutions and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Ms. Amiel’s comments about Arab culture are offensive and racist. Furthermore, the Arabs do not choose to see their children murdered by Israel’s army and settlers. Funerals are not a hobby they care for. However, she may care to know that people under foreign occupation have a legitimate recognised right to resist such an oppressive occupation.

Finally, if Ms. Amiel truly cares for peace, she should be calling on the U.S., Canada and the world community to enforce Security Council resolutions, and demand complete Israeli withdrawal from all occupied territories. Such compliance requires no negotiation or bargaining. This was the practice that was adopted with Iraq’s illegal occupation of Kuwait.

The Palestinians are calling for a modicum of justice in their own land, For without justice there will be no peace for Arab or Jew in the Middle East.

Yours sincerely

Ismail Zayid, MD.