Reader Comment

Observations On
The Land Of Palestine

Al Shindagah received a wide response to the article Israel: Whose Land Is It? that we published in our last issue. Here we publish some of the correspondence the article provoked

A Reasoned Case
Sir,
I was very impressed with the article “Israel: Whose Land Is It?” in the November/December issue of Al Shindagah prepared by your research and studies department. It is not easy to deal with such an emotive subject logically and without using extremist language, and the article succeeded in presenting a reasoned and convincing case. My perception, for what it is worth, is that Western opinion has moved strongly in support of the arab cause and away from Israel in the last few months.
I have a personal involvement in these matters. My grandfather, Sir Mark Sykes, was the co-signatory of the Sykes-Picot agreement of 1916.
Mark Sykes
CEO Minerva Press Holdings Ltd. 5/12/00

Lack of Response
The following letter was sent to President Clinton, Vice President Al Gore and Governor George W Bush and to Alan Rusbridger, Editor, The Guardian newspaper, London; Peter Stothard, Editor, The Times newspaper, London; Roger Alton, Editor, The Observer newspaper, London on 30th November 2000.
We received a response from Brian Whitaker, Middle East Editor of the Guardian.

Sir,

My name is Khalaf Ahmed Al Habtoor, I am Chairman of Al Habtoor Group based in Dubai, a city in the United Arab Emirates. (Please visit our website on www.habtoor.com  to see more about my group of companies). I am an honourary member of the Arab American Medical Association and I contributed to the establishment of the Arab Cultural Awards by the AAMA. I am a former member of Harvard University’s John F Kennedy School of Government; and from 1994 to 1997 I was the only non United States member of the World Board of Governors of the American United Services Organisation.

I am writing to you to highlight the nightmare that the Palestinian people are currently living through. Israel is using overwhelming military force to murder unarmed Palestinian children, men and women, often in their own homes. Israelis is using fighter aircraft, tanks and commandos, to terrorise the Arab population of Palestine.

You must be aware of these facts, Through the coverage that your newspaper and other media around the world give to the conflict in Palestine. It wounds me to read many of the reports in your newspaper on the conflict. It seems to me, that you highlight Palestinian violence and downplay Israeli violence We don’t hear much about the murders and lesser crimes perpetuated by Israeli settlers and the military against an unarmed civil population. Nor any condemnation either of the daily suffering of all ordinary Palestinians who, through boarder closures and blockade are unable to feed, clothe and protect their families.

The West and the United States seem indifferent to this suffering, they have taken no steps to protect the innocent or to condemn Israel. It should be borne in mind by all in the West, that, Before God, all children are equal and this means Palestinian children are equal to American children, to European children and to Israeli and Jewish children. But in the picture that is painted by the media the lives of Palestinian children seem to have a lesser value than children anywhere else in the world. I can’t understand why. If English children were murdered in such numbers I am sure that Britain, its allies and the rest of the world would not stand idly by and allow the murder of English children. So why allow Israel murder these innocents? 

One day in the future, there will an accounting for the lack of support for the Palestinian People by the West. Many will stand condemned for supplying the weapons and ammunition used by Israel to let Palestinian blood. The United States of America particularly will stand guilty as it supports Israel through military aid worth billions annually. All of which is taken from ordinary American taxpayers. I wonder if ordinary American citizens realise what their taxes are doing to an entire people, History will condemn those that stood idly by and did nothing. Echoing the guilt felt by Western nations after World War II when they approved the establishment of a state for the Jews when they found out that their rejection of Jewish refugees prior to W.W.II had cost millions of innocent lives.

This is not the first time the Arabs have been driven to starvation and homelessness in their own land they survived the Romans and the crusades and remained in the land of their forefathers when the conquerors were long gone. Arabs have been resident in Palestine since 6,000 BCE. It is they as a people, and not the Jews, who have the right to claim the land as a nation. If you compare our heritage to any other in world history, it can be clearly seen that we have a culture and a civilisation that stretches back eight millennium, longer than almost all others, a fact yet to be recognised by the West or in the United States.

These last nine weeks of unequal conflict in Palestine have reconfirmed the prejudice of the West, particularly the United States towards Arabs. The world community nations can now see this strong bias against Arabs and Muslims. It alarms and dismays them all that some Western countries are falling further and further out of step with world opinion as they your fail to condemn Israel.

The world population of Arabs and Muslims is in excess of 1.6 billion. They have in the past respected and admired the West, but they are now starting to lose this regard.
Many of the leaders, businessmen, intellectuals and members of the military elite of the Arab and Muslim world, have, in the past felt warmly toward the West, particularly the millions who graduated from Universities in America and Europe. This warmth is decreasing almost daily as they, along with many ordinary Americans and Europeans can now see that attitudes towards the Palestinians are clearly biased.

I am writing this letter to you Sir, on behalf myself, many of my friends, business associates and the ordinary people of the United Arab Emirates and many others around the world Christians, Muslims, Buddhists and some Orthodox Jews, who watch what is happening to the Palestinians with mounting horror. 

We want Western media to report the conflict fairly so that people can decide on the justice or lack of it, in the treatment of the Palestinians by Israel. Our people have good close economic ties with the west and we have always tried to build strong relationships with your country. But, it seems you prefer the existence of a state called Israel populated by immigrant Jews from Europe and Africa to the interests of Arabs and Muslims in the Middle East and around the globe.

I am sure that you have received many letters like this, that echo the anger and frustration felt by ordinary Arabs and Muslims everywhere. You may throw this letter in your waste bin; but I hope you will read it. And publish it for it really a plea to the West to look at this conflict from a humanitarian point of view. The G7 countries are the strongest and the most powerful nations on earth and as such, you should be fair and unbiased in your dealings with all other nations and peoples around the globe.
Khalaf A Al Habtoor 

Brian Whitaker, Middle East Editor of the Guardian responds 5th December 2000:

The Editor of the Guardian thanks you for your letter and has asked me, as the paper's Middle East Editor, to respond. We are aware of the issues that you raise in your letter and your concern about the coverage that has appeared in some sections of media, particularly in the United States.

As an independent newspaper, we endeavour to report the situation in the Middle East fairly and encourage a wide range of debate in our columns.

As part of our effort to maintain a high standard of coverage, we have had meetings with Palestinian and Israeli representatives in London, as well as several Muslim organisations, where we have listened to their comments and suggestions.

You may be interested to visit our websites where you can read some of the articles that I have written myself about the conflict: www.guardianunlimited.co.uk  

You also may be interested to know what we said in a leading article last Thursday. Part of it was as follows:

“From and standpoint, whether it be that of the Arabs or the West, Barak has been a major disappointment. He has failed to implement many of the provisions of the Oslo accords, which were negotiated by his Labour party predecessors, such as releasing the agreed number of Palestinian prisoners. He has allowed settlements to go on being expanded and new arrivals in Israel and come there with rabid and racist views. In the crisis of the last months he has ordered the Israel army to use massively excessive and indiscriminate force against stone-throwing protesters.

“It is not surprising if the view is growing in the Arab world, as well as in the occupied territories, that there is nothing to choose between Israeli leaders or that Likud may be be better because any deal they make is more likely to get through the Knesset and stick. Others are wondering whether the kind of peace which is on the table is worth any price. The Palestinian state they are being offered is nothing more than a series of Bantustans, divided by heavily armed lsraeli settlements and defence posts. Freedom of movement on the West Bank was easier in the pre-Oslo days of outright occupation than it is now, when constant roadblocks and permits make it very difficult to go from one town to another. There is also a mounting Arab sense that George W Bush may be more even-handed and less attached to the Israeli cause than a administration.

“The deadlock in the so-called peace process already stands as a miserable legacy of Bill Clinton's failure to put real pressure on Israel, even at the start of his second term when he did not have to worry about re-election and Monica Lewinsky was still living in California.
“Barak's election gamble may therefore produce nothing more than a pause while everyone reconsiders, the Americans work out who their next president is, and the Palestinians decide whether they need to develop a new strategy. This could mean an effort to mobilise more players into the field, including governments and Russia. The more people who can explain to the Israelis that long-term security lies in genuine compromise with the millions with whom they share the land, the better. If the Americans won't, others must.”
Yours sincerely,
Brian Whitaker