No Excuses for Israeli Actions

The the Editors of The Harvard Crimson:

Mass arrests without charge, curfews, home and crop destruction, torture, beatings, deportations, teargassing of hospitals. The Iraqi occupation of Kuwait? No, the Israeli occupation of Palestine. But still, even after more that 750 Palestinian civilians have been killed by Israeli officials, Israeli apologists such as Joseph Enis ("Arab Activists Massacred the Facts," October 11) have no excuse but the usual: the Arabs started it, Israel has to defend itself, and anyone saying otherwise is guilty of "nothing less than blood libel against the Jewish state." Fortunately, the world is getting tired of blaming the victims.

Enis claims he had "the facts" surrounding the massacre of 19 Palestinians on October 8. But where did those facts come from? After the massacre, two set of "facts" were put forth, one from the most extreme, right-wing government in Israel's history, the other from Palestinian civilians who clearly have a political agenda. Neither source can be considered unbiased or even reliable. But the Israeli government "facts" were fed to the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), known as the Israeli Lobby. AIPAC's executive director is a registered foreign agent of Israel, and AIPAC's job is to support the Israeli government regardless of its actions and to minimize damage to Israel's reputation. AIPAC has a student affiliate at Harvard called HIPAC which shares the same goals. Thus, it is no coincidence that HIPAC's "Facts about a Tragedy" advertisement was biased toward Israel. But what I find particularly dishonest is Enis' reliance on this advertisement in his editorial. Any reader who read both the advertisement and Enis' editorial would have noticed the same "facts," the same wording, even the same quote from an Israeli official. It doesn't take a lot of intelligence to see how Israeli propaganda works in this country: from the mouths of Israeli officials, to AIPAC, to HIPAC and the "the facts" are passed onto the Harvard community as if they were researched and reflected upon by an unbiased and responsible Crimson opinion writer. Journalistic integrity must be an alien concept to Enis.

I question why Enis did not wait for an unbiased report to come out before he chose sides. The same day that his opinion ran, the Boston Globe reported that several Israeli newspapers and human rights organization had presented evidence undermining the story of the Israeli government. Sadly, however, the world will probably never know the real facts--Israel has refused to allow a United Nations investigation of the massacre, making the world wonder what Israel has to hide. Israel has instead promised to conduct its own investigation, but was quick to add that no policeman involved in the massacre would be forced to testify and that no finding would be binding. This is hardly the sort of investigation the civilized world would expect from a country which constantly bills itself as the "only democracy in the Middle East."

I also wondered at the title "Arab Activists Massacred the Facts." If Enis is referring to the Subterranean Review's posters then he should know that there is not a single Arab member of the SR. If Enis is referring to those who participated in the anti-occupation demonstration on campus, he should know that the majority of participants were non-Arab, and in fact, included several Israelis. In light of this, I cannot help but ask myself if the decision to use "Arab" in the title was not racially motivated: an attempt to sway readers by focusing on the most stereotyped ethnic group in American today.

Lastly, I was repulsed by Enis' dismissal of the Palestinians killed as "attention grabbers" or "rabble rousers." My cousin was beaten to death by Israeli troops in the early days of the uprising. He did not throw rocks at the foreign army outside his door in order to see his name in print; he did not give his life so that he could be on the six o'clock news. Palestinians, Mr. Enis, risk their lives resisting the Israeli occupation because their lives under occupation are no longer worth living. Had this been Kuwaitis pelting Iraqis with stones, the world would have hailed them as freedom fighting heros. Why are the Palestinians not allowed the same support when they resist occupation? Until Americans understand that occupation is wrong whether it be Iraqi or Israeli, the violence will continue. Until America applies the same standards to Israel that it does to Iraq, and until America gives the same support to the Palestinians that it does to the Kuwaitis, the cycle will continue. Trig Tarazi, Harvard Law School '93