by Dave Reed, Special to the Carolinian

Garon Anders and Lauren D, in their twin articles on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict in the Feb. 7 Carolinian [Anders, Left Turn Only; Lauren D, Sickness of Israeli...], focus on the possible consequences of Hamas’ recent electoral victory while excluding Israeli responsibility in perpetuating the violence of this horrible conflict. This obscures the reality that the largest obstacle to a peaceful end to the conflict is the ongoing military and civilian occupation of the West bank and Gaza Strip.

While Anders tacitly acknowledges “the displacement of…Palestinians” in 1948 was an injustice, he dismisses it as a mere “problem,” not the utter social and cultural disaster it was for the Palestinian people. He cites World Bank figures measuring the staggering poverty they now find themselves in without providing any context. Israeli imposed closures, curfews, demolitions, checkpoints, land confiscation, illegal settlement and road expansion, arrests on a massive scale and a Byzantine system of laws Palestinians are subjected to have destroyed their already beleaguered economy. Concluding, Anders implies that it is up to the Palestinians to make changes to bring about, not peace, but rather the continuation of the status quo.

Lauren D tells us that a “potential increase in violence against Israelis and on Israeli territory” is a result of the election. In fact, Israel has escalated it’s violence directed at Palestinians in the days following the election, first by shooting to death a 9- year-old girl in the Gaza Strip and continuing with missile attacks in densely populated city centers and military incursions into the Balata and Aida refugee camps. She writes that this expected Palestinian violence will speed up Israel’s construction of the “security wall” it is building “around the [Israeli] cities.” The wall Israel is building is designed neither for security, nor is it being built around Israeli cities. The path of the wall has been drawn in an attempt to unilaterally define permanent borders that will confiscate natural resource-rich Palestinian land into Israel proper. The “cities” Lauren D refers to are Israeli settlements in the West Bank built in violation of international law and on stolen Palestinian land.

Both articles exhibit the double standard that is endemic in the U.S. media coverage of the conflict. When Israel commits acts of violence or carries out collective punishment on Palestinians, it is for “security” while Palestinian violence in reaction to the ongoing destruction of their society and culture is “terrorism.” All the violence in this conflict should be condemned equally and all parties should stop targeting civilians immediately. However, the Palestinian people are the victims of this ongoing brutal military and civilian occupation. We should stop “blaming the victims” as the late Dr. Edward Said wrote, and demand their liberation.

Dave Reed is a history student. He spent nearly four months in the West Bank in 2004 as a human rights worker.