From: Ismail Zayid
To: Globe& Mail
Sent: Thursday, July 22, 2004 10:42 PM
Subject: What about Israel's blinkers and international law?

July 22,2004
 
The Editor,
The Globe & Mail
 
Dear Editor:
 
In your editorial :{ " The UN's blinkers" July 22}, you accuse the UN General Assembly and the UN Human Rights Commission of bias against Israel. Did it occur to you that the UN voting record may reflect a continuing Israeli defiance of international law and all human rights covenants? Israeli practices in the illegally occupied Palestinian territories include extra-judicial assassination, detention of thousands without charge or trial, torture, daily humiliation of Palestinians, demolition of thousands of homes uprooting of hundreds of thousands of olive and orchard trees and expropriation of Palestinian land for the creation of illegal Jewish settlements. All these acts are in violation of virtually every article of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and thus are war crimes, as defined by international law.
 
As to the Apartheid wall that Israel is building largely on illegally occupied territory, it again stands in violation of international law as defined by the International Court of Justice. This wall has nothing to do with security. If Israel is truly concerned about the security of its citizens, all it has to do is terminate completely its illegal occupation of Palestinian territory, that has been allowed to stand, for 37 years, in defiance of international law and repeated Security Council resolutions. The real bias is in the stand of the US government, whose record in vetoing over 40 Security Council resolutions, against Israel, and preventing its compliance even with Security Council resolutions, that were passed. As to Canada's recent voting record, it stands as an insult to our country's claim to uphold the UN Charter and universal human rights.
 
Yours sincerely,
 
Ismail Zayid, MD.