From: Ismail Zayid
To: The Halifax Herald

Sent: Saturday, October 14, 2000 12:30 PM

Subject: The violence in the Occupied Territories.

The Editor,
The Halifax Herald
Halifax.

14 October, 2000

Dear Editor:

Your editorial {" A tunnel of violence", Oct. 14} highlights a number of relevant points.

Senseless as the lynching of the three Israeli soldiers in Ramallah, and the cold-blooded murder of nearly one hundred Palestinians, mostly children under fifteen, is, this conflict has deep roots related to a massive injustice inflicted upon the Palestinian people through a systematic process of ethnic cleansing and massacres for 52 years.

You state, quite rightly, " The Israelis, for their part, must come to the realization that the price of lasting peace is justice for the Palestinian people. Ultimately, they will have to return occupied land instead of colonizing it, share Jerusalem, stop stifling Palestinian aspirations to statehood and allow Palestine to grow into a viable country".

This is the crux of the matter. The West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem have been under illegal Israeli occupation for the last thirty three years, in defiance of Security Council resolutions. Israel’s settlements, in these occupied territories, are illegal and in violation of Security Council resolutions and The Fourth Geneva Convention. The Palestinian refugees must be allowed the right of choice to return to their homes or accept compensation, in accordance with repeated U.N. resolutions.

It is time for the U.S., which falsely claims to be an honest broker, and other countries, including our own, which claim to uphold international legitimacy and the U.N. Charter, to call for immediate implementation of Security Council resolutions, which should require no bargaining or negotiation. This is the practice that was adopted against Iraq when it illegally occupied Kuwait.

Israel must not be allowed to remain above international law.

Yours sincerely

Ismail Zayid, M.D.