From: Ismail Zayid

To: letter to Ed. The Star

Sent: Sunday, May 14, 2006 3:38 PM

Subject: Israel and international law.

Canada Palestine Association,

Halifax, NS., B3J 2X1

May 14,2006

The Editor,

The Star.

Dear Editor:

The Israeli ambassador, Alan Baker, accuses, in his letter, May 11, Haroon Siddiqui of his " very selective and short-sighted views" on Middle East problems. It is the state of Israel and its apologists who are totally selective and blind to the problems they have deliberately created in the Middle East, including their systematic ethnic cleansing  of the Palestinian people from their homeland, as orchestrated by their Zionist leaders, from Herzl to Sharon, besides other crimes.

He states that :"Hamas (should) simply agree to the conditions established by the international community, including Israel and Canada, and give up terror." It is the state of Israel which continues to defy international law and repeated Security Council and UN resolutions. It is Israel which stands in defiance of virtually every article of the Fourth Geneva Convention, in its practices against the palestinian people under its brutal illegal occupation. These violations are defined by international law as war crimes.

Mr. Baker asks Hamas to recognise the state of Israel. Will he tell us which state of Israel is Hamas required to recognise? Israel, since its inception, has refused to define its borders. Israel's first prime minister, David Ben Gurion, stated in 1954 in his diaries after Israel had already conquered 78% of historic Palestine: " The status Quo will not do. We have created a dynamic state, bent upon expansion." Accordingly, Israel proceeded in a series of wars of aggression against its neihgbours, Egypt, Syria, Palestine and Lebanon, in 1956, 1967, 1978 and 1982. Israel's current prime minister, Ehud Olmert, has declared recently that he plans to annex the major illegal jewish settlements in the West Bank, as well as East Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley.

He accuses the Palestinians of terrorism. He clearly has a very short and selective memory. The Zionist movement and Israel created terrorism in the Middle East. The crimes by the Irgun, Stern and Haganah terrorist gangs take volumes to enlist and are only surpassed by the acts of state terrorism committed by the sate of Israel against, Arabs, British, Americans and even Jews. Does he remember the Lavon affair, the massauda Shem-Tov synagogue, in Baghdad? That is not to mention the Israeli crimes using chemical weapons ahainst Khalid Meshal, in Amman in 1997, and the recent report of using chemically poisoned chocolates to murder a Palestinian activist.

The question that must be asked how long must Israel be allowed to remain above international law?

Sincerely,

Ismail Zayid, MD.

President, Canada Palestine Association