The Zionist propaganda machine

Clark Rosengarten and David Shiffman have both distorted several facts in their attempt to help others gain an understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Since my space is limited, I will attempt to dispell a few myths only.

First of all, Shiffman states, “Also, you will never see Israelis dancing in the streets and cheering when Palestinians are killed. Palestinians dance in the street when Israeli children are killed on a regular basis.” It seems that Shiffman never visited google.com and typed the following: Haaretz “Death to the Arabs.” (Haaretz is one of Israel’s mainstream Hebrew-language newspapers.) In addition, the Hebrew press documents numerous occasions in which “Death to the Arabs” has been verbally and physically expressed by Israeli Jews of all socio-economic levels.

Concerning the apartheid wall, Rosengarten writes, “The security barrier exists because of the over 100 suicide attacks that have occurred in Israel over the last three years.” Clearly, Rosengarten uses the term “security barrier” because he thinks that Israel’s only motivation for building this wall or barrier is to secure its borders. What Rosengarten and many others fail to understand is that this cannot be Israel’s only intention. If it were, this so called security barrier would lie on the Green Line (Israel’s 1967 borders, i.e. Israel proper). Instead this barrier lies within the West Bank, allowing Israel to illegally annex about 58 percent of non-Israeli land, land that was to be used for creating a viable Palestinian state. (The 58 percent figure includes the scattered Israeli settlements-illegal by the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Hague Regulations.) In addition to its annexation of land, Israel clearly stated that Palestinian residents of these annexed lands will not be granted Israeli citizenship.

Given these facts about what I and others call the apartheid wall, Israel cannot possibly be considered a democracy. If Israel was truly a democracy, why would it require a background of military service in order to qualify for prestigious jobs involving the fields of engineering, medicine, law, business, etc.? It is a way to discriminate against non-Jewish Palestinian-Israelis, a disrespected and unprotected minority in Israel. First, Israel does not permit most Palestinians to join the military, especially if their religious affiliation is Islam. Second, most Palestinians with Israeli citizenship will not join the Israeli military because it forces them to repress their brothers and sisters in the occupied territories. This demand for military experience in almost all prestigious professions is a prominent contributor to both the lack of success amongst non-Jewish Israelis and inequality amongst Israelis.

Wifag Adnan

Trinity ’05