DISTORTION OF THE TRUTH
(In response to April 6 letter to the editor, “Missing Facts.”)
The recent letters to the editor have been nothing short of a distortion of the truth.
Although some humanitarian aid reaches Gaza, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid notes that the monthly average of truckloads of aid to Gaza is 65 percent lower than before the damaging blockade policy was enacted.
This has real effects upon the civilian population, where 61 percent of the people of Gaza are food insecure, 10.4 percent of households suffer from chronic malnutrition, and 90 to 95 percent of individuals have no access to clean water.
Because of the effects on civilians, the Israeli blockade policy is a form of “collective punishment.”
According to the United Nations, the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem and Amnesty International, this failure to distinguish between civilians and militants is therefore a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
While it is true that both Egypt and Israel have sealed their borders to the people of Gaza, Egypt, the second largest recipient of U.S. military aid, has been pressured by the United States (and Israel) to maintain this harmful policy.
To claim that Egypt (and other Arab states) should take in Palestinian Arabs is a clever argument devised to draw attention away from inhumane Israeli action against Palestinians, including continuous settlement construction, the building of the Israeli apartheid wall on Palestinian land, and the refusal of Israelis to accept a fully autonomous Palestinian state.
My friends and I stand against all injustices in the Middle East, including the Black September attacks in 1970. However, we focus on fighting against current injustices — the Israeli occupation and system of apartheid.
Lina Bearat President of Students for Justice in Palestine
