Editor's note:
This Letter to the Editor originally appeared in the Sept. 7, 2001 print issue of The Spectrum.
Jessica Brand's cliché Op-Ed on Wednesday about Palestinian- Israeli relations told of evil Palestinian suicide bombers preying on helpless pizza-eating Israelis. She asks readers to imagine living in a place where you "live in constant anxiety of leaving your homes, for fear of getting caught at the wrong place at the wrong time" and where "each night is a culmination of a battle to stay alive.
Want to hear something more unfortunate? Can you imagine living in a place where soldiers openly discuss in Hebrew whether they should torture you while you're waiting at a checkpoint on your way to your brothers house a few more miles away? Or what about a situation where you're watching "Millionaire" and you've got bullets in your living room?
Perhaps a couple of hours before that, you had to ask your mom whether the water was back on - in your comfy refugee camp. Or a place where even if you are fortunate enough to have a home, that it may get demolished while you're in it? This place, as you've already guessed, is Palestine. The reason? The Israeli government's entire purpose is to change the ethnic makeup of the area from Arab to Jewish.
You don't do that by being nice to people. Never mind that almost every international human rights' group as well as Jewish organizations within Israel has condemned the Israeli forces for their inhumane treatment of Palestinians - even during peacetime.
Sometimes I just wonder what could drive people to perform horrendous suicide bombings. I just tell them to suck it up and just remember to wave and say hello to the heavily armed soldier walking past your porch! Now, if you want to make a difference, tell your senator or congressman to stop sending war equipment and a hefty allowance of $3.2 billion per year to an oppressive Israeli government. Think of what we can do with $10 million a day. That's a lot of bread.
Abdul Sallaj
UB Student
