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The Times Argus, December 31, 2002

Civilians Are Being Killed in Palestine

By Mark L. Hage

Let me introduce you to Fatima Obeida. She lived 95 years in Palestine, the last 35 under Israeli occupation. On Dec. 3, while returning to her village after collecting sweets and nuts for the upcoming Eid festivities, Israeli soldiers, without provocation, sprayed the minivan she was traveling in with machine-gun fire. Obeida perished in the assault, becoming the oldest victim of the 26-month intifada. She was one of more than 30 Palestinians killed in the first 10 days of December, at least half of them civilians. This harvest of death went largely unreported in the U.S. press.

We were treated, however, to the fawning comments of Howard Dean as he took a lesson in Middle East history at the knee of Ariel Sharon, and we heard from our president that he is favorably inclined to Israel’s request for an additional $14 billion dollars in aid and loan guarantees. Those who control the purse strings in the U.S. rarely ask why five Arab workers were blown up by an Israeli tank while trying to escape the Gaza Strip to find work, or why a staggering percentage of Palestinian children suffer from anemia and malnutrition, or why illegal Jewish colonies continue to spread like a cancer on Arab land.

Since we are on the subject of issues we’d rather not talk about, let me raise the matter of Yonathan Ben-Artzy. An Israeli Jew, he has been convicted and jailed six times for refusing to serve in Israel’s army of occupation. He is one of hundreds of Israelis who have pledged not to sell their souls to Sharon to further his barbaric war against the Palestinians and who are filling Israel’s military prisons to capacity. Just prior to his last sentencing, Ben-Artzy told the court: “Today I am on trial, but a day will come when you will be judged for your actions.” His candor earned him an extension on his prison term of seven days.

Obeida and Ben-Artzy share the distinction of being invisible to the one country that has the power to pressure Israel to withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza. Why do we allow our elected officials and media to behave as thought he lives and fortunes of such people don’t matter? Three million Palestinians are imprisoned in their villages and cities, many of them desperately poor, terrified, and victimized daily by Israel’s army; a rising number of Jews are choosing to spend long stretches of their youth behind bars rather be complicit in war crimes against their Arab brothers and sisters. This madness, this terrible suffering, need not continue. It is time to use America’s power to help free the oppressed in Palestine and to bear witness to the brave struggle of Israel’s war resisters.

Mark L. Hage
Montpelier, VT