Occupied Land Must Be Returned To Palestinians

To the editors:



Shai Bronshtein’s controversial op-ed “A City By Any Other Name” (Sep. 11) is a blatant distortion of facts and a reprehensible attempt to confer legitimacy on Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands. The Israeli settlement enterprise has become a universal emblem of colonialism in the 21st century. This insignia of theft and robbery from the poor and the desolate should only be condemned and deplored. The argument flagrantly proffered by Mr. Bronshtein that Palestinian territories were “no man’s land” prior to the arrival of Zionist colonialists could not be further from the truth.

My grandfather was a farmer, and before him his father and forefathers, and I take serious objection to your claim that Israeli setters built their illegal settlements on wasteland. They have built them on well-nurtured soil on which my ancestors shed sweat and blood. And the fact that these settlers have labored relentlessly to maintain this stolen property does not render null and void the fact that these territories were forcefully acquired and populated in defiance of explicit and unambiguous provisions of international and humanitarian law.

Peace between us Palestinians and our Israeli neighbors can only be achieved when mutual trust prevails, and that will only be realized when legitimate Palestinian and Israeli grievances are fully acknowledged. The quandary over Palestinian land occupied since 1967 is at the heart of these grievances, and this issue ought to be justly resolved by returning the entirety of this property to its rightful owners.



AHMAD B. KHAIRI ’07

September 12, 2006