The following letter was published
in Vancouver's Westender, in the April 24-30 issue, written by Hanna Kawas
Reply to "Taking
issue with ISM activists", letters published in the Westender
(April 17-23 issue)
The Letters published in the Westender (April 17-23 issue), under the title
"Taking issue with ISM activists", are an attempt to divert attention away
from the real issues at stake, one of which is Israeli warcrimes against
the Palestinians (see Amnesty International report at www.amnesty.org, searchword:
Israel). It is truly pathetic to see the extent to which the pro-Israeli
apologists are willing to go to cover up the facts. Instead of dealing with
answers to the Palestinian civilian suffering under Israeli occupation, they
try to ridicule the genuine human feelings and the courageous stand of the
Vancouverites who volunteered with the International Solidarity Movement
(ISM). They even deny that the occupied territories are indeed occupied.
Israel's closest ally, the U.S., considers the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem
as "Occupied Territories." The irrefutable basis for this is the hundreds
of United Nations Security Council and General Assembly resolutions, and
the Forth Geneva Convention.
(Letter author) Mr. Steve Lipari quotes UN Security Council Resolution 242
as a proof that the Palestinian territories are not occupied lands. He states
that the resolution calls for Israel to withdraw "from territories" and not
from "all the territories", conveniently forgetting to mention that the preamble
of the same resolution de-legitimized any territorial conquest by "Emphasizing
the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war".
If any territory is "disputed" it is in fact the Israeli territories, for
the following reasons:
- Israel, since its creation
in 1948, never defined its borders. Israel still does not have a constitution
precisely so as not to define its borders, and thereby allow for more conquest
of Arab and Palestinian lands;
- In 1947 the UN Partition
Plan which created Israel gave it 56 per cent of the area of historic Palestine.
At that time, Jews-be they Palestinian natives or settlers-only owned six
per cent of the total area of historic Palestine;
- In 1948 Israel expanded
its territories by military conquest and controlled 78 percent of the total
area of historic Palestine;
- The Jewish National Fund
and its affiliates (which does not sell nor lease to non-Jews) controls 93
per cent of the land in Israel and most of this land was confiscated from the indigenous native
Palestinians without their consent. So which territories are the "disputed
territories"?
Hanna Kawas, chair Canada Palestine Association,