From: Ismail Zayid

To: Dal. Gazette

Sent: Friday, October 27, 2000 1:21 PM

Subject: Kaufman’s re-writing history.

The Editor
The Dalhousie Gazette,
Dalhousie University,
Halifax, NS.

27 Oct., 2000

Dear Editor:

Ms. Ariella Kaufman, in her article ["Zayid’s propaganda pumped sermon", Oct. 26], is not only re-writing the history of the Palestine-Israel conflict but also re-writing my own lecture. My lecture was titled:" The Palestine-Israel Conflict: A Legacy of Ethnic Cleansing and Dispossession". In the lecture I gave an account of how Zionist and Israeli leaders carefully planned and effected the expulsion of the Palestinians from their homeland. This was documented by statements by these leaders, including Thodore Herzl, David Ben-Gurion, Yigal Allon, Yitzhak Rabin and confirmed by Israel’s own historians.

She describes Israeli violation of the human rights of Palestinians, under illegal occupation for 33 years, as "unfair adminstrative treatment". The Palestinians of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, under this oppressive illegal occupation, have been de-humanized, systematically tortured, their land illegally expropriated,for the creation of illegal settlements, whole towns and villages erased from the face of the earth, including my own village Beit Nuba, and thousands of their homes demolished, all in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. These Israeli violations of human rights have been documented and condemned by Amnesty International, the U.N. Human Rights Commission, the International Commission of Jurists and Israel’s own human rights organisations, including B’Tselem and the Israeli League for Civil and Human Rights.

I agree with Ms. Kaufman’s final point that " church must be separated from state in Israel as a necessary first step". Israelis have to carry on their I.D. cards notation of their religions, and they are treated accordingly. Israeli Arabs, Muslims and Christians, are treated as second class citizens. There are unanswered calls for Israel to declare itself as a state for all its citizens, and not just a Jewish state. The racist practices in Israel are well descibed in the statement by Professor Israel Shahak,a holocaust survival and Chairman of Israeli League for Civil and Human Rights, who wrote:

" It is my considered opinion that the state of Israel is a racist state in the full meaning of this term: in this state people are discriminated against, in the most permanent and legal way and in the most important areas of life, only because of their origin".

Ms. Kaufman describes me as an extremist. I am calling for a resolution of this conflict on the basis of Israeli compliance with international law and Security Council resolution and complete withdrawal from the illegally occupied territories of West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, so that an independent Palestinian state is created on these territories, to live in peace with neighbouring Israel. This Palestinian state would be constituted on exactly 22% of the land of Palestine. If this is extremism, so be it.

I stated finally that the Palestinians are calling for a modicum of justice, for without justice there will be no peace for Arab or Jew in the Middle East.

Yours sincerely
Ismail Zayid, M.D.

P.S. If the Gazette is willing to publish my lecture in its entirety, I will be happy to provide it.