The Daily Illini · Champaign, Ill. · 11 December 2002

CP-2002-126

History, examples prove Israeli military guilty of atrocities against Palestine

David Green, Champaign resident

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Transcribed from the clipping

Paul Weichsel (12/2) writes that it is “self-evident,” that there is a “culture of violence and death in Palestinian society.” By discounting the context of a willfully humiliating 35-year occupation that has destroyed the fabric of Palestinian society, Weichsel lives in a world of self-evident denial, in which his only alternative is to blame Israel's victims.

I would encourage readers to visit the web site electronicintifada.net in order to learn about the occupation, and how to decode the Israeli/American propaganda that denies its historical origins and current realities.

For a minor example, Fatihiya Suliman, aged 70, gave this account of events on April 6, 2002, relating to the destruction of the Jenin refugee camp, and recorded by B'tselem: “When the bulldozer approached our house, we asked the soldiers to let us get Jamal out (Jamal, 38, is deaf and paraplegic). Other women, a male neighbor who spoke Hebrew, and I continued to beg them.

At first, they told us that the commanding officer was sleeping. Then a soldier agreed that we could get him out. But, he said, only the woman was allowed to take him out. We went into the house, but the operator of the bulldozer wouldn't wait even one minute so that we could take Jamal out of the house.

The soldiers who said we could go into the house called out to the soldier who was operating the bulldozer to stop for a moment, but he refused. We rushed in while the bulldozer was already eating away at the house. Amal, my daughter, some women neighbors, and I found Jamal in the house under the rubble. The house began to collapse, and we ran for our lives.

The house was completely destroyed with Jamal underneath.”

How this transcription was made

Date and publication rest on the collector's slide label; no masthead, folio or printed dateline appears on this clipping.

Context added by this archive

The sharpest language in the 2001-02 group sits in this reader letter, not in any staff or wire copy: 'atrocities against Palestine' in the headline, 'Israel's victims', 'a willfully humiliating 35-year occupation'.

The letter closes by noting that operators of D-9 bulldozers 'subsequently received citations for "performing under fire with dedication and tenacity"' and calls that a '"self-evident" culture of violence and death,' indeed - turning the phrase from the letter he is answering back on its author.

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