With the 'boys' in Gaza

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GAZA CITY, Israeli-Occupied Gaza — They would not like being called “boys,” but to one old enough to be their father, that is exactly how many of these Israeli soldiers look. Television has done these soldiers a disservice, failing to show the true source of the provocations that have led to the violence in this embattled area. Second Lt.

Vital Lavon, 20, says that what the television cameras and network reporters don't show is Friday prayers in mosques where radical Muslim fundamentalists incite the masses to violence against the Israelis. “They also don't tell you,” he says, “that (Palestinian) adults encourage young children, aged 11 to 13, to throw rocks and bottles at the (Israeli) soldiers.

They do this for two reasons. First, it is more dramatic on television. Second, the adults know that the children can get away with more than they can.” Television also fails to report the contents of the declarations issued by the “United National Leadership of the Uprisings,” as the clandestine leadership of the rebellioncalls itself.

They include instructions for building fire bombs, attacking Israeli patrols and conducting ambushes. Much of the world defends the Palestinians on grounds that Israel denies them their rights. But there are certain important facts that remain under-reported. First, conditions in the camps, though they are shabby, have been overstated.

And those conditions would be much better if the Arab states had shared some of their trillions of dollars in oil profits with their Arab “brothers” in Gaza and the West Bank. Second, the PLO threatened with death Palestinians who moved from the territories, or who accepted better housing from the United Nations Relief Work Agency (UNRWA).

From 1971 to 1987, every Arab country voted in the U.N. General Assembly for a resolution that called on Israel “to desist from the removal and resettlement of Palestine refugees in the Gaza Strip ... ” By contrast, Israel since 1970 has been the only country working to improve the living conditions of the refugees. In 1987 alone, Israel contributed $29 million to UNRWA.

Third, unemployment among those living here is between 2 and 3 percent. In Israel, unemployment is between 5 and 6 percent. Fourth, it is a fiction, though it is often repeated, that Gaza is the most densely populated land in the region. Gaza contains fewer people than Tel Aviv or Jerusalem.

As long as the Arab nations and the PLO continue their hatred of Israel, the problem of the refugees will not be solved. A new song written by Mahmoud Darwish, minister of education and culture for the PLO (and considered by a “moderate”), illustrates the point. Some excerpts: “You that pass in passing words, take your names and get out ... steal whatever you want ...

Take your portion of our blood and just get out and don't come among us like reptiles ... we have what you don't have, a country ... go wherever you wish, but not among us ... never ... Die wherever you want, but not among us. Go out of everything. Get out of our wounds, our land, from the sea, from everything.”

Darwish means that the Jews should get out of Israel, not just the occupied territories, and he is not alone in this view. It is the driving passion in the Arab nations. It is why the Israeli boy soldiers of Gaza and of the West Bank must oppose the violence. In the long run, the very survival of their nation is at stake. Cal Thomas is a syndicated columnist.

You can write to him c/o L.A. Times Syndicate, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053

How this transcription was made

Masthead not readable on the scan. The label on the slide read: [masthead not on clipping] — Single clipping, complete column with the columnist's tagline at the foot. No other article on the scan. — No masthead in frame. The clipping is cut to the column. The only self-identification is the tagline naming the L.A. Times Syndicate, which is the distributor, not the publishing paper. Maria's label of Press Enterprise is neither confirmed nor contradicted by anything on the page. — No printed date at all. The column discusses the Darwish poem furor, which the New York Times story on slide 37 datelines 4 April 1988, and refers to Israel's 1987 UNRWA contribution as the most recent figure. That places it in early-to-mid April 1988, consistent with Maria's label of 9 April 1988. Nothing on the page confirms the day, month or year. — Printed errors kept as set: "the clandestine leadership of the rebellioncalls itself" (no space between "rebellion" and "calls"); "(and considered by a “moderate”)", which is missing a word — the sense requires something like "considered by some a moderate" — and is printed with the gap as shown; and "United Nations Relief Work Agency" for Relief and Works Agency. The ellipses inside the Darwish quotation are the columnist's and are printed as spaced periods. — Single quotation marks around 'boys' as set. — No deck. "Cal Thomas" appears in a ruled box with the columnist's portrait and the surname "Thomas" beneath it — a standing column signature, not a deck.

Cite this clipping

"With the 'boys' in Gaza," (newspaper unidentified), 9 April 1988. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1988-129. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1988-129