Palestinians want oppression to end

The Palestinian protests during the past three weeks are not a spontaneous reaction to provocation by former Israeli minister of defense Ariel Sharon's visit to Haram al-Sharif in East Jerusalem or "incitement" by Yasser Arafat. Rather, they are a rebellion against 52 years of oppression and 33 years of military occupation. \nThe rights of Palestinians are infringed upon daily. Currently, Israel denies 3.2 million registered Palestinian refugees the right to return to their country. As accepted by prominent historians and Palestinians themselves, and as confirmed by Israeli historians Aryeh Yitzhaki and Uri Milstein, 800,000 Palestinians were driven out of their country in 1948 as a result of vast massacre and terror. \nToday under Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak the Israeli government practices extreme racial discrimination against Palestinians; it continues to expropriate Palestinian land, demolish Palestinian homes, confiscate Palestinian identity cards, harass and brutalize the Palestinian population, restrict movement within the territories, restrict access to certain holy sites and restrict the right of some Gazan students to education. \nIn the Occupied Territories, for example, almost 750,000 acres of Palestinian land was expropriated by the Israeli government since 1967, and much of it has been used for the building of dwelling units exclusively for the use of Israeli Jews, according to MIFSTAH, the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy. Settlements in the Occupied Territories, illegal under international law, continue to expand. \nTo make way for their expansion, Palestinian homes are demolished, and Palestinian land is taken. All this activity is supported and funded by U.S. tax dollars. \nIn the clashes themselves, more than 120 people have been killed, almost all of them Palestinian. Soldiers are shooting at Palestinian civilians, some of whom were not participating in the demonstrations, many of whom are now seriously injured or dead. \nFor example, the Israeli military attacked residential areas in Rafah, Gaza with rockets Oct. 20. One woman and her son were injured by shrapnel in their own home and are in critical condition. The soldiers have also shot at, wounded and killed ambulance workers and journalists.\nHospitals from the area report most of the wounds they're treating are to the head or chest, evidence the soldiers are shooting with the intent to kill. \nIt has been recognized by the international community that, as stated by LAW, the Palestinian Society for Protection of Human Rights and the Environment, "Israel has been using heavy weaponry and internationally banned ammunition against civilians. These include tear gas that irritates the skin, live ammunition, high velocity bullets, dum-dum bullets, rubber coated steel bullets, rubber pellets, 12.5mm bullets, helicopter gun ships, tanks, missiles and rifles equipped with silencers and lasers." \nDuring the past three weeks, Jewish and Palestinian Israeli citizens have been protesting against the army's activity within Israel. Hundreds of thousands have been protesting in the United States and around the world. Israel claims it is acting in self defense, in order to "defend" its heavily armed military occupation force from Palestinian youths and adults who are protesting the occupation of their country and the oppression of their people, mostly with rocks, sometimes with peaceful demonstrations and occasionally with unsophisticated guns and molotov cocktails. \nThe claim that the Israeli occupying army is defending itself is ridiculous; the army is suppressing the rebellion of people who are living under a violent occupation, who are fed up after being oppressed for 52 years, who are fed up after patiently but futilely waiting for peace during seven years of negotiations between their respective governments. Their anger is justified and understandable.\nOct. 7, the U.N. Security Council issued Resolution 1322, which condemns "the excessive use of force against Palestinians, resulting in injury and loss of human life; calls upon Israel, the occupying Power, to abide scrupulously by its legal obligations and its responsibilities under the Fourth Geneva Convention ..." The General Assembly issued a similar resolution Oct. 20, as did the U.N. Commission for Human Rights. \nAsking for peace does not mean ignoring the current situation or forgetting the past. It is necessary to examine the past and the present to discover how Palestinians and Israelis can live together in the future. It means asking for a situation free of discrimination in which peace can exist. \nAs articulated by Gush Shalom, of the Israeli Peace Movement, "This war can only have one ending: Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Territories, and the establishment of the independent state of Palestine, and it's capital, East Jerusalem. Upon ending of the occupation and Oppression, a new era might dawn on this region -- an era of peace"