In his response to Ms. Carol Stone's letter, Mr. Brian Cybulski is re-writing the history of the Palestine/Israel conflict:{letter" Different Perspective" Sept 16}. The Palestinians did reject the 1947 UN Partition scheme because it was unjust. In 1947, the Jews in Palestine constituted 31% of the population and owned 5.6% of the land. Yet, the UNGA resolution #181 apportioned for the Jewish state 56% of the land of Palestine. Furthermore, the Zionist leaders,too, opposed the partition or accepted it temporarily. Menachem Begin, the leader of the Herut party stated: " The partition of the homeland is illegal. It will never be recognized." David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first prime minister, when announcing the creation of Israel on May 14,1948, refused to define its borders and stated: " We are announcing the creation of a state in the western part of our country." He wrote in his diaries :" To maintain the status quo will not do. We have set up a dynamic state bent upon expansion." Before a single Arab soldier entered Palestine on May 15,1948, the Zionist forces had committed a series of massacres of Palestinians, driven 350,000 from their homes and occupied many cities and towns apportioned to the Arab state in the UN resolution. Ben Gurion stated had the Arab armies not come in, Israel's forces would have occupied all of Palestine. This was ultimately achieved in the Israeli war of aggression in June 1967.

The suicide bombing and the killing of innocent civilians, reprehensible as it is, is the direct outcome of Israeli illegal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, which has been allowed to stand for 37 years in defiance of international law and repeated Security Council resolutions. Israeli practices, during this occupation, stand in violation of virtually all the articles of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and are thus war crimes, as defined by international law. If Israel truly cares for the security of its citizens, it should comply with international law and terminate completely its illegal occupation of Palestinian and other Arab land.