From: Ismail Zayid

To: Halifax Herald

Cc: Bev Dauphinee

Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2008 12:28 PM

Subject: It is the occupation......

March 11, 2008

The Editor,

The Chronicle Herald

Dear Editor:

Paul Schneidereit, in his column, March 11, speaks of Western media duplicity in reporting the news of the Palestine/Israel conflict. He is quite right. There is clear duplicity and bias, in favour of Israel, in our media and political leaders' responses to the events related to this conflict.

Condemnation has been rightly stated about the abhorent killing of the 8 Yeshiva students in Jerusalem, but no equivalent condemnation has been voiced by media or political leaders of the equally abhorent killing, in the previous 4 days, of the 120 Palestinians in Gaza, half of whom were non-combatants and over 20 were children. The killing of innocent civilians, be they Israeli or Palestinians must be condemned by all.

In his lengthy condemnation of Hamas, Fatah and the Palestinian Authority, there is not a word about the brutal siege, collective punishments, denial of basic elements of life and humiliation imposed by Israel on the 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza, most of whom are refugees who have been ethnically cleansed from their homes by Israel.

It is time that Mr Schneidereit and other Israel's apologists come to understand that it is the brutal illegal occupation, that Israel has imposed on the Occupied Palestinian Territories for over 40 years, in defiance of international law and repeated Security Council resolutions, that is the cause of all this suffering.

Peace and security, for Israelis and Palestinians, will be attained only if Israel terminates completely its illegal occupation of the Palestinian Territories and complies with international law and UN resolutions.

Yours sincerely,

Ismail Zayid, MD