Monday’s article by Shawn Redden, “Recognize the unspoken truths of Israel’s occupation” (Student Life, 11/17) purports to expose the realities of the conflict in Israel – the realities that go beyond “statistical abstraction and infrequent suicide bombings” (a criticism directed towards an earlier Student Life article by Mia Eisner-Grynberg). However, while Mr. Redden points out and distorts a few disturbing truths of the conflict, he fails to see the greater picture.
Mr. Redden explains that there is an inadequacy in reporting on the “brutalized Palestinian people living under a ruthless and illegal occupation.” But the core reasons behind the conflict in Israel and the Palestinian Territories have little to do with an “illegal occupation,” nor a “brutalized” people, but rather a much greater conflict that extends beyond Mr. Redden’s Al-Jazeera sources.
Had Mr. Redden done his research before writing his extremely passionate argument against the state of Israel, he would have found that the areas of the so-called “illegal occupation” are actually disputed territories, whose “status can only be determined through negotiations.” Since both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip were not legally under any recognized sovereignty in 1967, when they were captured in a defensive war by Israel, they cannot be considered occupied territories by international law. It is perfectly understandable to desire the dismantling of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, an action that will no doubt be made in future peace negotiations, as outlined in UN Resolution 242 – but Mr. Redden’s blanket statements have little to do with reality.
If Mr. Redden wants to discuss actual illegalities and challenges to international law, he might want to consider the Palestinian Authority’s blatant utilization of terrorism as a political force.
Later, Mr. Redden claims that the “truth” of “the wretched Apartheid wall” is regrettably ignored. This reference is particularly distorted, as it refers to a security fence, not an Apartheid wall, not a Berlin wall, not a wall, period. The fence that is currently being constructed is 94% impermanent chain-link material. Apartheid, Mr. Redden, was a “political policy to segregate, persecute, and mistreat” the Blacks of South Africa. There is absolutely no Israeli policy that can possibly be compared to such an abomination. Equality is an integral part of Israeli democracy, the only democracy in the Middle East – a society in which Arabs vote freely along with their Jewish neighbors, and where Arabs hold positions in the Israeli parliament. To compare Israel to Apartheid South Africa is not only journalistically irresponsible and disgustingly offensive, it’s just plain wrong.
In fact, Mr. Redden seems to be wrong in almost all his arguments, and a short Google search later, one is not surprised to find lengthy posts by a very confused and deluded Mr. Redden. One such post condemns Wesley Clark for the fighting in Yugoslavia, writing, “Clark should be standing shoulder to shoulder with Milosovic at the Hague.” Has Shawn spoken with any Yugoslavians lately? Highly doubtful. Perhaps Student Life’s own copy editor, Margaret J. Bauer, said it best a few weeks ago with her letter to the editor “Can someone please tell Shawn Redden to shut up?” She writes, “How many common clich‚s and characterizations can you jam into one opinion piece? Ask Shawn Redden.” And later, “Depending on who happens to be reading [Redden’s articles], you’re either preaching to the choir or simply confirming liberal stereotypes. Congratulations, you’re mediocre.”
The truth is that the conflict in Israel and the Palestinian Territories is a horrible reality faced by millions of innocent people every single day. And just as Mahmud al-Qayid, 11, was not a militant when he was tragically killed by shrapnel from an Israeli tank shell, neither were Assaf Staier, 11, Tomer Almog, 9, Liran Zer-Aviv, 4, and Noya Zer-Aviv, 1, all of whom were heinously slaughtered in the recent suicide bombing at a Haifa restaurant, October 4, 2003, which killed a total of twenty-one people and wounded another sixty.
It’s time to recognize the efforts made at reaching a solution to the terrible circumstances in the Middle East, even in the face of decades of history that would suggest hopelessness. As Mr. Redden recommends, let us acknowledge all those who suffer from terrorism – eight and a half million people in the whole of Israel and the Palestinian Territories, as well as the entire international community itself.