Letters to the Editor, February 2, 2004

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The Western double standard policies in relation the Middle-East conflict, particularly the Apartheid Wall

The US, the EU, Australia and Canada oppose the International Court's hearing, in regard to the Israeli Apartheid 'racist' Wall built on stolen Palestinian lands of the West Bank, occupied in 1967.

These countries have made their decision even before the hearing would take place on mid-February. Apparently the governments of those countries have forgotten that the decision of referring the Wall's issue to the Intern. Court came after the US had vetoed the resolution, condemning the Israeli racist illegal Wall.

These countries have also forgotten that the issue of the racist Wall was referred to the International Court by the UN General Assembly when the vast majority of the UNGA (over 160 countries) voted for the decision of referring the Wall issue to the International Court in the Hague, The Netherlands.

Imagine how those countries are influenced by the Zionist pressure. Sadly, when it comes to the indigenous people of the Holy Land (the Palestinian people, who have been ethnically cleansed by Zionist (racist) Israel for the past 56 years and counting, and also have been occupied for the last 36 years and counting), there is no place, in the eyes of those Western democracies (as Israel calls them), for justice and the very basic Human Rights. The question is, when the governments of the US, the EU, Australia and Canada have taken such a double-standard position against the helpless Palestinian people, then everyone with least morality would say there is no difference between the racist Israeli government and those Western governments.

Experience has shown that human rights and justice, as understood by those Western countries, are just a matter of self interest and selfishness. And they are used only when they (HR and justice) serve the agendas of those countries and their ally, the racist state of Zionist Israel.

Shame on such countries which call themselves champions of human rights and democracy.

‘Looking brain-washed’, added BBC’s Jerusalem correspondent Paula Goering, to the words of one single Israel businessman released by the Hizbullah in an arranged exchange with the Israeli authorities. BBC could not stomach that the released Israeli prisoner should say publicly on the world TV networks: ‘I was treated fairly’. An apparently positive comment on Hizbullah.

This is how the poison of local BBC correspondents, gets exposed on the international viewers, specially in the case of those with Zionist sympathies and connections seem to be ever ready to misuse their freedom of speech to contribute to Israeli propaganda against Arab resistance to Israel.

This bit of comments about ‘brainwash’ by the BBC correspondent were edited out in the earlier edition of BBC news, but were restored later in later telecasts.

The question arises, how a BBC correspondent is so technically qualified to make out on the spot, if the prisoner was brainwashed to say good words for his captors, when for Israel and some at BBC, Hizbullah cannot by definition should be able to do any good in the world, even if for their own constituency, Hizbullah is defending the rights of Arabs under constant army attacks by the Israel. BBC has no appreciation of the other sides views or rights.

I am asking you hereby to condemn Israeli violence and speak out against Israeli crimes.

Yesterday, the State Department issued a statement condemning the suicide bombing in Jerusalem that left 10 Israelis dead. Yet in the last 4 weeks, over 38 Palestinians civilians were killed by the IOF, 314 were injured and over 600 left homeless in Gaza. The Bush administration refuses to admonish the Israelis over their indiscriminate killings of scores of innocent men, women and children.

I am asking you to take a principled and educated stand in this conflict. Condemning Palestinian attacks on Israelis while ignoring Israeli attacks against innocent Palestinian civilians is not helpful and will do nothing to advance the cause of peace in the region.

I have a few questions for you: Why did you remain silent as the IOF killed 38 Palestinians, maimed another 314 innocent civilians and left over 600 Palestinians homeless in the last two weeks alone? Why, as an "honest broker," the United States refuses to condemn the atrocities perpetrated against Palestinians?

Unfettered U.S. support for Israeli crimes will affect how millions of us will vote in the next election. For the sake of domestic security, this country cannot afford to support racist regimes like that of Israel which show such a blatant disregard for the lives of Palestinian civilians. The erection of Sharon's infamous Wall of Shame, a de facto land theft, under the guise of national security, is not only a violation of international law (why was it not built along the green line then?). It was also meant to make life for the Palestinians impossible and intolerable (by strategically turning villages into open-air prisons, cut-out from the rest of the Palestinian and Israeli populations), strangling them to death, thus causing unprecedented misery and poverty as well as total Israeli control of Palestinians' lives and livelihood). Are you going to continue to stand aside and watch, and thus be partly responsible for this Palestinian human tragedy of untold proportions? Or will you do the right thing and act ethically, in the name of democracy and freedom. The Palestinian people have a right to self-determination and return to their homeland, and if we were a democracy worthy of this name, we would do everything that is in our power to assist them in becoming a free and independent sovereign state, as opposed to encourage, and even substantially contribute to Israel's massacres and oppression (through billions of dollars of US tax payers' money and state-of-the art weapons of mass destruction supplied to Israel) Are you going to have the will and courage to speak out against Israeli oppression and further ghettoization of Palestine, or will you also chose to be Israel's accomplice in perpetrating those hideous crimes against humanity, and thus further isolate us from the rest of the world? Surely you must still have some conscience, morality, and sense of justice?

Going to war against Iraq over WMDs that never existed while ignoring very well-known Israeli WMDs is a double standard that we can no longer afford nor tolerate. As we wage our war against terror, we cannot expect Arab and Muslim nations to take us seriously and assist us if we have one set of demands for Israelis and another for Arabs and Muslims. It is high time America woke up and distanced itself from Israel, its Apartheid regime, and intolerable discriminatory practices.