Dear Editor,
It was with great interest that I read Mr. Nascimento’s letter on the situation in Palestine and Lebanon where Israel is conducting genocidal attacks on the people of Palestine and now the people of Lebanon. Mr. Nascimento has correctly shown why we Guyanese should have an interest in what is happening there. The possibility of that situation escalating, and the use of nuclear weapons is very real. Should that happen, we could all be consumed. Scientists believed that life on earth will be completely lost. However, there are a few areas I would like to clarify.
In the first place, Israel was never proclaimed a “Jewish Republic on 14th May 1948” as Mr. Nascimento stated. It was just called the “State of Israel.” The resolution 181 that gave rise to the existence of the State of Israel also called for the establishment of the Palestinian state. That never happened and is one of the many resolutions of United Nations still to be implemented in relation to the people of Palestine. The letter went on to state that the new state of Israel was going to “welcome home every Jew who seeks entry…” It continued that “…Israel accepted 700,000 Jewish immigrants…” mainly from European countries, their original homes/ native countries.
What was omitted here is the fact that just before the UN resolution was passed to establish two states, Israeli terrorists murdered thousands of Palestinians and chased some eight hundred thousand (800,000) from their homes that is the origin of the Palestinian refugee problem. So from the very beginning Israel’s intention was ethnic cleansing and terror its main instrument.
In 1967, Israel attacked many Arab states and, in the process, seized the lands which the UN had designated for a Palestinian state. Since then, they have, by force of arms, occupied parts of Syria, Egypt and Lebanon. The slogan of Israel is that the state of Israel is from the ‘River to the Sea.’ Even now they are making no secret about expanding the State of Israel. Bezalel Smotrich, the present Minister of Finance recently said “… I want a Jewish state that includes Jordan, Lebanon and parts of Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Saudia Arabia. According to our greatest sages, Jerusalem is destined to extend all the way to Damascus!”
Even today they continue to violently remove Palestinians from their homes, on the West Bank, killing them at will and installing Jewish families in their houses. So, the statement that “… The Jewish people of Israel are at war with the Muslim Arab States …” gives the impression that this is a religious conflict, it is not! This is a struggle of the Palestinian people for independence, for the end of occupation and for the right to self-determination as is stated in the Basic Documents of the UN and for the halting of the forced removal from their homes.
Hamas which emerged from those struggles is not a terrorist organisation as is being proclaimed by Israel & U.S. It is a National Liberation Movement fighting to defend the Palestinian people from the daily abuses and humiliation. It is true that at one point some Palestinian organisations were saying that Israel is an illegal imposition and should not exist. However, they have long moved away from that position. The demand today is that the Palestinian state should be established within the 1967 borders which the UN designated as their state.
Israel must stop its occupation of Palestinian lands. They must remove the persons whom they illegally settled on the lands since 1967. For emphasis let me repeat that this is an anti-colonial struggle, it is a fight for the most fundamental of Human Rights, that is the Right to be Free.
Sincerely,
Donald Ramotar
