Oct. 2,2002
The Editor,
The Dalhousie Gazette.
Dear Editor:
The letters by A. Elbaz, J.Krashinsky, A.Litman and J. Grossman
[Sept. 26] are the classical rehash of Zionist falsification and re-writing of
the history of the Palestine/Israel conflict. The courageous articles by
Jon Elmer {" Riot, the language of the unheard" Sept. 12, and subsequent
articles, Sept 19 & 26} are accurate and tell it as it is.
Your correspondents quote Mr. Netanyahu : " Nothing, absolutely
nothing justifies terrorism." Beautifully said, but let us look at the practice.
It was Prime Minister Netanyahu who sent, in
1997, his Mossad agents, carrying Canadian passports, to Amman
Jordan, in the attempt to assassinate Khalid Meshal, using
chemical weapons.
As to terrorism, it was Israel, and the Zionist terrorist gangs {The
Stern, The Irgun Zwei Leumi and Haganah}, that created terrorism in the Middle
East.The catalogue of Israeli terrorism is lengthy and requires volumes to
describe, but I will limit myself to few examples. However, the testimony of the
late Professor Israel Shahak, a Holocaust survivor, and
then Chairman of Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights, is
relevant here. He stated : " There is nothing new in the fact that Israel is a
terrorist state, which, almost from its inception, has used its intelligence
service [the Mossad] to assassinate people on foreign soil with any violence or
terror it considers necessary for its ends."
The first act of air piracy in the
history of civil aviation was carried out by Israel, in Dec. 1954, when a
civilian Syrian airliner was forced down in Tel Aviv and its passengers and crew
held for days, despite international condemnation.
The first act of shooting down a
civilian airliner was deliberately carried out by Israel, when a Libyan airliner
was shot down by Israeli jet fighters over Sinai, in Feb. 1973, on the direct
orders of Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, killing 107 of its
passengers and its entire French crew.
The first murder by letter bomb was
carried by Yitzhak Shamir's Stern terrorist gang, killing a young British
student in England, Rex Farran, in May 1948.
Fathi Shikaki was assassinated in Malta by the Mossad in 1995, on the
orders of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. We must not
forget The role of Ehud Barak, later prime minister of
Israel, dressed as an Arab woman, in the assassination of three Palestinian
leaders, including the poet Kemal Nasser, in 1973 in Beirut.
The list of assassinations, of Palestinians in Europe and Middle
East, is a long one, but Europeans were not excluded. The Assassination of the
British minister , Lord Moyne, in Cairo in 1944 and the horrible murder of
the UN mediator, Count Folke Bernadotte, in
Jerusalem on Sept. 17, 1948, on the orders of Yitzhak Shamir, is another
crime.
Israel's main ally, the USA, was not spared, as in the Lavon
Affair in 1954, bombing US diplomatic centre in Alexandria and
Cairo, and the attack on the USS Liberty , in
1967.
Jews were not spared as in the sinking of the Patria
ship in Haifa harbour in 1940, by the Irgun, killing
240 Jewish refugees, and the bombing of Massauda Shem-Tov
synagogue in Iraq in 1951, to force Iraqi Jews to emigrate to Israel.
There is a great deal more about Israeli terrorism and its work on chemical and
biological weapons.
Mr. Elmer's statement about, Netanyahu's expression about "the
mass deportation of Arabs" is challenged. It is reported that he made this
statement : " Israel should have exploited the repression of the
demonstrations in China, when world attention focused on that country, to carry
out mass expulsions among the Arabs of the territories". {Benjamin Netanyahu,
Hotam. Nov. 24,1989}.
Your correspondents speak of " anti-Semitic Palestinian education and
media." A number of international studies observe the opposite. those who
care to look into this should examine the following report, amongst others :{"
Israeli Textbooks and Children's Literature Promote Racism and Hatred
Toward Palestinians and Arabs." by Maureen Meehan, Washington
Report on Middle East Affairs, September 1999, pages 19-20}. As to
pure anti-Semitism and racism, I'll let Rabbi Ovadiah
Yosef, a former Chief Rabbi of Israel and the spiritual
leader of the Shas party tell it : " How can you make peace with a
snake? The Ishmaelites [Arabs] are all accursed evil people....God regrets
having created Ishmaelites."
Ms. Grossman speaks of " the concessions made by Shimon Peres." This
is unbelievable. Since when has the withdrawal from illegally occupied
territory, in compliance with international law and Security Council
resolutions, been considered a concession? It is this
oppressive illegal occupation that has been allowed to stand for 35 years, in
defiance of international law, that is subjecting the Palestinians to crimes
against humanity. Israel is practicing extra-judicial assassination, detention
without charge or trial, torture, demolition of thousands of homes, including
entire villages, like Imwas [Emmaus], Yalu and Beit Nuba [my own home town],
uprooting of hundreds of thousands of olive and fruit trees, expropriation
of territory and the creation of illegal settlements, all in violation of
The Fourth Geneva Convention. These acts are war
crimes, as defined by international law. Elbaz et.al. question the
credibility of Amnesty International. This is incredible. How
about the credibility of Human Rights Watch, the Israeli human
rights organisation, B'Tselem, and many UN and international
observers who all described Israeli atrocities in Jenin, Balata and
Nablus as war crimes.
It is relevant to note here that Israel remains in defiance of scores
of Security Council resolutions, including resolution # 1405,
of April 15,2002,ordering the admission of UN inspectors
to Jenin, and resolution # 1435, Sept. 2002,
ordering Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian cities and towns. Israel remains in
defiance of both resolutions. Using the Bush and Blair logic of waging war
against Iraq, are we allowed to conceive that they are also planning war againsr
Israel, for defiance of Security Council resolutions and having nuclear,
chemical and biological weapons, and using some of them?
The facts remain that the hypocrisy and double standards of the US
and its allies are limitless. How long must Israel remain
above international law?
Yours sincerely,
Ismail Zayid, MD.