To: Beverley Dauphinee ; href="/cgi-common/webmail.cgi?cmd=url&xdata=~2-de4326fc8581e34e3e1b9122eb8389abf44d9ef0db00&url=mail" title=bhowse@herald.ns.ca href="javascript:press_email('bhowse@herald.ns.ca')">Bob Howse ; href="/cgi-common/webmail.cgi?cmd=url&xdata=~2-de4326fc8581e34e3e1b9122eb8389abf44d9ef0db00&url="title=llepierres@herald.ns.ca href="javascript:press_email('llepierres@herald.ns.ca')">Laurent Le Pierres ; Halifax Herald

In your editorial : { "The next war" Nov.21}, you regurgitate the diatribe of Mr. Michael Oren [Israeli 'historian' ....], with no reference to hisoric facts or context. You do this without reference to a Palestinian point of view, as an attempt of balance.

The Palestinian 'terrorists', you refer to, are people who have been subjected to an illegal occupation, in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, that has been allowed to stand, for 37 years, in defiance of international law and repeated Security Council reolutions. Under this occupation, the Palestinians are being subjected to detention without charge or trial, torture, extra-judicial assassination, daily humilition, denial of health care, demolition of thousands of their homes, expropriation of their land for the creation of illegal Jewish colonies 'settlements', and collective punishments, all in violation of virtually every article of the Fourth Geneva Convention. These practises are war crimes, and state terrorism, as defined by international law.

The UN Charter recognises the right of all peoples, including the Palestinian people, to resist foreign occupation. UN Resolution # 2787, on Dec.6,1971, confirms : " the legality of the peoples' struggle and liberation from colonial and foreign domination and alien subjugation, notably in Southern Africa ....... as well as the Palestinian people, by all means consistent with the Charter of the United Nations."

A number of Palestinians are driven, by desperation under this oppressive occupation, to commit the abhorent acts of suicide bombing. They do not have the F16's and Apaches, that Israeli leaders and soldiers shower them with their missiles, killing thousands of men,women and children and destroying their homes, in their refugee camps, where they have been waiting for 56 years to be allowed to return to their homes, from which they were ethnically cleansed by Israel. This Right of Return is stipulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and repeated UN resolutions, which Israel continues to defy.

The killing of innocent Israeli and palestinian civilians is unacceptable. And if Mr. Oren truly cares for the security of his fellow citizens, he should call on his government to comply with international law and bring about complete termination of this illegal occupation, and thus sceurity for both the Israeli and Palestinian peoples can be attained.