In "Understanding the Bulldozer" (Feb. 1), Jeremy Burton argues, rightly enough, that other world leaders are guilty of far greater war crimes than is Ariel Sharon. But the Nuremberg Tribunal made it clear that "Others did it too!" is no excuse when it comes to war crimes, so Ariel Sharon's must be judged for themselves. Given that Burton admits these crimes, his statement that he stands behind Sharon is surprising.
Burton tries to explain Sharon's "more despicable actions" by saying they were motivated by his nervous nationalism. But the same is true for Bush, Milosevic, Hitler, and every aggressor. Moreover, it's difficult to see how killing civilians in foreign countries qualifies as self-defense. In 1953, Sharon led a commando raid on Qibya in Jordan, killing over 60 Palestinian civilians. In 1982, as Burton acknowledges, he aided in the slaughter of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Palestinian civilians in Beirut. And since 2000, he has organized the Israeli colonization of Palestine, killing thousands of Palestinians in the process.
Burton mentions the work of Israeli human rights organizations and asks, "Where are the Palestinian-led human rights groups?" In fact, there are many such groups, including MIFTAH, the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group, and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights. He is correct in noting that many Israeli Jews heroically oppose Israel's colonial violence, but since Sharon has ignored, ridiculed, and tear-gassed them, this earns him no credit at all.
Burton wisely seeks a view of Sharon and the Israel-Palestine conflict that moves beyond absolutes, for like every single human being who walks the earth or lies in a hospital bed or sits in a refugee camp, Ariel Sharon is complex, not simple. Still, some absolutes remain: Palestinians occupy absolutely no Israeli land, while 400,000 Israelis occupy Palestine, and the occupation, with all its horrors, increases every day. Until we see occupation as a form of slow, grinding terror, and work to end it, Ariel Sharon's bloody legacy will live on in the battered lives of Palestinians and Israelis.
Photo: Breadchastick / Wikimedia Commons
