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Show Editorials Justice? The Is Where Tell Us, Isreal, Forum Managing Editor , The Jewish people have seen many hard-- ' ships in their histoiy. They have been violently expelled from what they feel is their land; they have been killed: they have been imprisoned for expressing their political views in many countries: they have been humiliated, degredated, and relegated to second class citizenry in almost every country in which they have resided. The Israelis seem to have learned their lessons very well. In the occupied West Bank, and the Gaza strip, Israelis, all with the cultural heritage mentioned above, are currently employing . quite similar tactics on the Palestinian residents of the Occupied Territories. The Jewish people were done a great wrong by Hitler, the Nazi actions were an unforgivable transgression of human decency. But. the guilt of the world which helped create the present state of Israel is screeching to a halt. The Palestinians had nothing to do with the actions of the Nazis, but they alone are paying, with their homes, their lives, and 40 years of military occupation, the price for the crimes committed by Hitler and his henchmen. The Jewish "haven state was formed by Editor Jennifer Killian . Ginny Gale Business Manager N. L. Spackman Advertising Manager Laura Reeves Photo Director Karla Joost Contributing Writers Cara Cahoon Karen Chamholm Myriam Hernandez Even For By Richard Foltz Faculty Advisor Scott Cairns College of Salt imately eveiy of Westminster LaJkc City will be published and distributed approx- other Tuesday throughout the academic year by the Associated Students of Westminster College. The newspapers address is 1840 South 1300 East, Salt Lake City, Utah 84105. g The Forum is an member of the Rocky Mountain award-winnin- Collegiate Press Association. Typesetting and printing by Kimball Smith Advertising, 1059 E. 900 S., Salt Lake City, Utah 84105. The Forum welcomes letters from students and other readers. Submissions must be signed and noticed. Unfortunately for the Israelis, their attitude may well backfire, creating a situation parallelling that which led to the establishment of Israel: world guilt and support for the the Palestinian people, and millions of desperate people rallying to a righteous cause. . down the middle, Abu All's relatives live in a makeshift shack of wood scraps and corruPreviously, they owned a gated iron. multistoried house in the area, which was blown up by an Israeli demolition squad. Reprinted with permission from the Salt Lake Tribune." On Christmas morning, while Christian pilgrims attended services in Bethlehem and Jerusalem, Israeli Defense Force soldiers were beating to death an elderly Palestinian in his own home in Askar refugee camp, outside of Nablus in the occupied West Bank. Having decided to use the mans roof as a look-ou- t post in view of the past weeks bloody riots, the IDF had moved into the house. When he complained of the mess they were making, they silenced him with deadly Palestinians weren't down the stairs. fooled. Many conscientious Israelis werent,' either. It is only here in the West that we persist in believing with naive sincerity the child' s pap fed us by our friends and allies the Isrealis, who tell us they are merely maintaining order. , The author is a graduate student at the University of Utah Middle East Center who recently returned from spending a week with Palestinians in the occupied West Bank cities of Bethlehem, Nablus . low-payin- it. d 1 ' This intimidation maneuver is a common tactic used by the Israelis to discourage the families of suspected troublemakers. The Jerusalem Post recently ran an article about the victims of this activity, families made intentionally homeless who must petition the Israeli government for the right to rebuild on their own property. According to the article, such petitions often take 10 years, if they are answered at all. In camp, some 13,000 displaced Palestinians live in an area roughly the size of three football fields. Balata, Askar and others, like all refugee camps, were constructed to be temporaiy. In the West Bank and Gaza, Palestinians have been suffering the additional problems and humiliations of being under foreign occupation since 1967, waiting for the world to take notice of their plight. Many, like Abu Ali, have been waiting much longer than that. In light of cramped, unhealthy living conditions, wanton property damage by Israeli soldiers as well as mass arrests with threats of (illegal) deportation, midnight searches, curfews, verbal and physical abuse in the streets, combined with other daily frustrations such as long commutes into g Israel for jobs, can it really be to outsiders that there is unrest? surprising What is surprising is that there isn't more of violence. The official report stated the man in question died of natural causes after" falling include the authors telephone number (telephone numbers will and East Jerusalem. be used only to verify the authenticity of letters). Submissions must also avoid the use of proA day after this incident, I sat having tea in fanity and libel. the home ( If one could call it that) of Mr. Abu Lengths may not exceed three-type- Ali Said (not his real name) in the Balata double-spacepages with refugee camp, across the road from Askar and the site where at least 10 unarmed Palelines 50 character spaces wide. stinians, including old women and young Deliver letters directly to the children, were massacred in the street by Forum office (under the door if Israeli forces during the preceding weeks necessary) in the basement of demonstration. Abu Alis lodgings consisted Shaw Center by3 p.m. on Tuesday of two rooms without windows, which he his wife and four children. In a one week before the date of pub- shared with of large extended families, he had society lication, or mail them to th eForum more living space than most. office at the above address. Please Abu Ali was bom 50 years ago in the Arab be concise and to the point in your town of Jaffa, an ancient settlement now absorbed within the sprawling urban mass of letters. Tel Aviv. In 1948, after the Israeli victory, he Opinions expressed on the and his to Balata. He Forum editorial pages are those of has beenfamilywere there ever since. Forty years I have the writers and are not to be been in this refugee camp," he said to me. construed as the opinions of the Tell me, dear friend, what can I hope for now in my life? What can hope for my Associated Students of Westminchildren?" ster College or of the college A short distance down the alley, a dim administration, faculty or staff. thoroughfare with an open sewer running Forum South Africa, with its long histoiy of apartheid and bloody protests, is a good friend of Israel's as well. Despite trade embargoes and other sanctions by the United States and most Western nations, Israel still trades freely with this volatile country. Obviously, they are trading ideas, as well as raw materials. Israels government has made it clear that it doesn t care what the world thinks, they are going to go right on about their business. Fortunately, for the Palestinians, the world does think, as even President Reagan Non-Christi- an d, - over yet. well-verse- " Forum non-refundab- le Participants, This Is No Way To Celebrate Yule Erick Scheen Laurie Staton-Carte- r Randy Sullivan The supplements the current annual figure of $3 billion in economic and militaiy grants. Therefore, the weapons being used to kill the Palestinians are American- - made, or funded at the least. It seems our Indian fighting days really arent in aid. This British mandate. U.S. support, and the desperation and religious fervor of a people with nowhere else to turn. But, Israel overstepped its bounds with the recent on Palestinian crackdown violent protestors. Where is the justice or sense of taking one person's home and giving it to another person when both parties believe the land and home to be their own? The unjustness of the situation increases tenfold when the first person is closed into a refugee camp, given work cleaning the sidewalks of his own land, and shot while protesting said unfairness. It seems rather ironic that the only two countries who remain notably allied with Israel are the United Statesand South Africa. d in the art of Both countries are the from land original inhabitants, procuring and subsequently slamming them into the slums. The United States, though, it abstained from the United Nations resolution condemning Israels actions, and supported the U.N. resolution asking Israel not to deport nine Palestinians, is still staunchly behind its old friend. On the same day President Reagan verbally slapped Israels wrist. Congress voted Israel another $200 million By Laura Reeves . It is natural for oppressed peoples to protest: indeed, it would be unnatural for them not to. For the most part, what we in the West see of Arabs is the isolated actions of a few extremists who do not speak for the masses. To accept them as representative would be as unfair to Arabs as would be judging the American people on the basis of the words arid deeds of the Aiyan Nations or And in the current Lyndon LaRouche. unrest, who are the real terrorists stonethrowing Arab youths of Israeli soldiers roaming the streets of occupied cities with tear gas and machine guns they do not hesitate to fire with intent to kill? I was struck, in speaking with West Bank the attitude they tended to Palestinians, by express toward Americans. It was not the hatred and virulence one might expect toward a nation that had facilitated the taking of their homeland by foreign invaders and continued to finance their oppression for 6 40 years. Rather, many Palestinians seem to look toward America with admiration, even with reverence as their only potential savior. How is it your people do not see what is happening here? I was asked constantly. Dont your newspapers tell them? Alas, I had to reply, they did not. These Palestinians seem to feel most Americans would rush eagerly to their aid, if only the truth could be made known to them. The image of an American nobly supporting the struggles of peoples oppressed by tyrannies the world over has not failed to reach Palestine. It is not logical to them that our feelings would be selective. Therefore, if we fail to perceive the justice of the Palestinian cause, it can only be because we are unaware of it. Is it surprising that' after so long, our apparent blindness should be so exasperating as to drive some of the less moderate among them to extremist measures? , In spite of Israeli Premier Yitzak Shamirs Panglossian assurances that all is well and under control,, it is generally agreed these days in West Bank teahouses and marketplaces that the disturbances" in the occupied territories are far from quelled, but have in fact only begun. Some Israeli papers reflect this view as well and many Israeli citizens are fed up with the way their government has been behaving. I spoke with a woman in Jerusalem, a Belgian Jew who emigrated to Israel 1 0 years ago, who said she plans to return soon to Belgium. I came here with a dream," she told me. I didnt come to learn how to oppress people, to become a fascist. The dream is gone for me now." When one comes to understand Palestinian protest as the natural response to intolerable living conditions, it is clear that the mere application of brutal force is not going to make it go away. People will protest for as long as they have something to protest. The situation will worsen as the Palestinian population continues to grow and they come to form the majority both in the territories and within Israel itself in the next few decades. Suppression is not the answer. Israeli strong-artactics must cease, now, we What Americans period. need to realize, as part of our own undeniable involvement, is that the Palestinian people will continue to . struggle, through desperate means, perhaps, when all others have failed, for as long as they continue to suffer. They will continue to struggle, for indeed, given similar circumstances, who in the world wouldn't? m January 19, 1988 1 i J l J s t f ,lti - Issue 9 -- |
