http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/ed-column-200011142061.htm
Palestinians are people, too
By John V. Whitbeck, Washington Times, 11/14/2000
As Serbs stormed and torched their parliament in an outburst of
violence encouraged and cheered on by the Western powers, President
Clinton proclaimed: "The United States stands with people everywhere
who are fighting for their freedom."
It would, of course, be wonderful if this were true, but, as with every
other principle which Americans purport to hold dear, Palestinians, who
have also been fighting for their freedom in recent days (at far greater
human cost), are a glaring exception. It seems that, in American eyes,
Palestinians are not considered "people."
Indeed, no one who believes that Arabs are human beings could
consider the transformation of the Arab land of Palestine into the Jewish
state of Israel, necessarily requiring the dispossession and dispersal of
the Palestinian people, to be a good thing, as almost all Americans do.
Holding both views simultaneously is logically and intellectually
impossible.
History cannot be erased. Israel exists, and Israelis are also human
beings. Yet it is inconceivable that a true peace, for both Palestinians and
Israelis, will ever be achieved unless the peoples of Palestine's only
enemies, Israel and the United States, recognize in their hearts and minds
the enormity of the original sin - that the dispossession, dispersal and
continuing oppression of the Palestinian people constitutes a grave
injustice, probably the gravest injustice inflicted on one people by another
since the Second World War - and that Palestinians are not simply a
problem to be coped with but human beings entitled to basic human rights.
Palestinian civilians killed by Israeli soldiers usually die in numbers
but namelessly - at least in the Western media. Thanks to the presence
of a French television cameraman, 12-year-old Mohammed al Dura did
not die namelessly at Netzarim junction on Sept. 30. To most of those
who watched him die from the comfort of their homes around the world, he
probably looked like a human being. If so, are not all Palestinians human
beings? If so, are they not entitled to basic human rights? If so, why
should Israel continue to be permitted to defy international law and U.N.
resolutions and to deny them their basic human rights? Indeed, why
should Israelis wish to do so and why should Americans, alone, wish to
support them in doing so?
If Americans and Israelis viewed Palestinians as human beings, they
might also be capable of seeing through the propaganda fog and
recognizing that every Palestinian position and objective in the peace
negotiations is in full compliance with international law and relevant U.N.
resolutions, while virtually every Israeli position and objective in the
peace negotiations is in total defiance of international law and relevant
U.N. resolutions. Even for countries as notoriously hostile to international
law and U.N. resolutions (except when, as a matter of convenience, they
can be used as a stick with which to beat a particular, usually Arab,
adversary) as Israel and the United States, this is a fundamental reality
which, if recognized, could not easily be brushed aside.
Middle East peace will clearly require a moral and ethical
transformation on the part of Americans and Israelis. However, as the
"South African miracle" has demonstrated, moral and ethical
transformations can occur abruptly, and it should not be forgotten that
Americans and Israelis have high moral and ethical aspirations and that
most of them genuinely believe that they and their countries act morally
and ethically in the world.
If the death of Mohammed al Dura provokes such a moral and ethical
transformation and helps a critical mass of Americans and Israelis to
recognize that Palestinians are human beings, with all the consequences
that inevitably flow from such a recognition, then this poor child will not
have died in vain and a durable peace, necessarily requiring some
measure of justice for Palestinians and some measure of contrition and
repentance by Israelis, will, at last, be possible.
John V. Whitbeck is an international lawyer who writes frequently on the
Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
