Give Palestine a chance
(In response to Benjamin Negley’s Sept. 9 column “Peace talk paradox.”)
One of the main obstacles to the peace talks is the Israeli government's occupation and control of the West Bank, an occupation that prevents freedom of movement to and from Palestine, access to proper medical facilities, access to important religious sites and economic growth in Palestine (unemployment in Gaza is around 50 percent).
Yet Israel has never offered the Palestinians a viable, sovereign state; under the Camp David Summit in 2000, the West Bank would have been divided into two or three cantons separated by Israeli land, still under Israeli control.
Another obstacle to peace is the United States' one-sided and unconditional support of Israel. We give Israel, a country with the fourth most powerful army in the world, around $3 billion a year in military aid that has contributed to the killings of over 6,000 Palestinian civilians and 1,400 Palestinian children.
Mr. Negley fails to mention the continued building of settlements in the West Bank and the Israeli government's policy of house demolitions, which make a peace agreement unlikely. The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions estimates that in 2009 alone, 5,388 Palestinian homes were demolished, leaving thousands of Palestinians homeless.
Finally, Mr. Negley refuses to admit that Israel might be at fault for failure in the current peace talks. By refusing to continue a freeze on settlement building in the West Bank, which is illegal under the Fourth Geneva Convention, [Israeli] Prime Minister [Binyamin] Netanyahu shows that he is not serious about peace. Palestinians and Israelis both want peace; sometimes politicians or journalists do not.
Danielle Bäck Student
