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| Al-Awda New York, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition | |
There has been an on-going mini-media battle this past month in the letter to the editor section of the main Westchester newspaper, the Journal News. This letter was Suzanne Adely's response to a White Plains Zionist supporter who again was placing blame in the wrong place. Israel's
actions cause of violence Joel Siedmann's Dec. 5 letter, "End anti-Israeli acts to lead to peace," was inacurate and greatly misleading. Mr. Siedmann gives the impression that the victims of this conflict are Israeli children when in fact the victims are overwhelmingly Palestinians, many of them children. The Israeli victims, who number few in comparison, have overwhelmingly been soldiers-- soldiers who have been condemned by Amnesty International, Physicians for Human Rights, Israeli human rights groups and the United Nations for firing upon largely unarmed civilians. Siedmann reiterates claims that Israelis offered the Palestinians 92 percent of the West Bank in recent negotiations. The reality is that the Israelis have already annexed more than 25 percent of the West Bank by expanding its Jersualem borders illegally. In fact, East Jerusalem was annexed illegally in the first place. On that point, Israelis continue to confiscate land in the West Bank and Gaza to build illegal settlements and bypass roads. Furthermore, during negotiations, Israel did not acknowledge the right of return and reparation for 5 million Palestinian refugees, which is guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Israel also refused to negotiate many vital issues like access to water and other resources. How can Palestinians have confidence in Israelis as "reliable partners for peace" when after seven years of Oslo, illegal settlements have doubled? These are the questions "fair-minded Palestinians" are contemplating and that fair-minded Israelis should contemplate, that is, if they are interested in a just and durable peace. Suzanne
Adely |
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