From: Ismail Zayid
To: letters@nationalpost.com
Sent: Friday, April 26, 2002 8:46 PM
Subject: Judge and Jury?

26 April, 2002
 
The Editor,
The National Post.
 
Dear Editor:
 
In your editorial { "The phantom massacre" April 25} you lambaste the UN envoy, Mr Larsen, Svend Robison, Amnesty International and all those who dare criticise Israel and point out the horrific destruction imposed on a refugee camp, and other towns and villages, by Israel.
 
You state : "Israel should welcome an objective inquiry." Yet, you and Mr. Sharon, in objecting to an independent  commission appointed by the UN Secretary General, would like to act as both judge and jury.  Interestingly, you refer to the Geneva Conventions. Are you aware that the state of Israel stands, for the last 35 years, in violation of virtually every article of The Fourth Geneva Convention. These violations include torture, detention without charge or trial,collective punishments, demolition of thousands of homes, including entire villages, like Imwas, Yalu and Beit Nuba [my own home town], expropriation of land, uprooting of hundreds of thousands of trees and creation of illegal settlements.
 
No where in your editorial is there any mention of an illegal Israeli occupation that has been allowed to stand for 35 years, in defiance of international law and repeated Security Council resolutions. Do you not accept, as it is enshrined in the UN Charter, that people under foreign occupation are entitled to resist such occupation, or must Israel remain above international law?
 
Yours Sincerely,
 
Ismail Zayid, M.D.