It was unfair that the Palestinians did not have a representative in the debate that took place in the Psychology auditorium on Nov. 2. Please give me the chance to correct some of what Bluma Zuckerbrot Finkelstein knows about the Palistinian/Israeli problem so that Nick David can "explore" the problem like a professional reporter. Dear Bluma, Israel is to be blamed for the violence in the Middle East -- not Arafat because they are much stronger than Arafat and his administration. Since the Madrid Conference in 1991 not a single peace agreement was carried out by Israel.
In the Oslo agreement of 1995, Rabin promised the Israeli withrawal from three zones by the year 1997. Zone A that is under Palestinian control, zone B that is under Israeli military control in co-operation with the Palestinians, and zone C that is controlled purely by Israel. Furthermore, the agreement regarding Jerusalem, refugees, water and the settlement should have been completed by October 1999. Ever since the Oslo agreement, Israel has not given up its superiority and control over the Palestinians.
The facts are that Israel has security and administrative control of 61.2 percent of the West Bank, and about 20 percent of the Gaza Strip (Area C), and security control over another 26.8 percent of the West Bank (Area B).
Israel has nearly doubled the number of settlers in the last 10 years from 80,000 to 150,000, enlarged the settlements, continued its discriminatory policy of cutting back water quotas for 3 million Palestinians, prevented Palestinian development in most of the West Bank, and sealed the Palestinians into restricted areas.
Three million Palestinians are locked in small areas until they submit to Israeli demands. Meanwhile 200,000 Jews have freedom of movement in the West Bank. And that is why, my dear Bluma, the uprising started. Israel never completed the withdrawal of its army. They haven't withdrawn from Palestinian's villages and towns and that is why they get thrown by stone. A simple equation, what is it that you don't understand about it? The occupation is not over as Israel claimed and that is the problem.
And regarding Arafat's refusal to accept the final agreement at Camp David on July 2000, the agreement did not address the question of refugees and access to water. Arafat was not offered 95 percent of the West Bank and sovereignty over East Jerusalem.
He was offered 95 percent of what Israel is willing to give him and sovereignty over the surface of the Al Aqsa mosque, while the ground beneath it belong to Israel.
And about what you said that Palestinians teaching their children to hate Israel. I don't think Israel is teaching its children to love the Palestinians when it's teaching them how to use weapons at a young age.
The Palestinian children don't need anyone to till them to hate Israel. They can learn that on their own when watching the Israeli army beating their fathers and imprisoning their older brothers.
And Bluma, tell me for goodness sake where do you get your information from because it is far away from the truth. Israeli army has orders to shoot the Palestinians in the HEADS AND UPPER BACK my dear leaving many of them with brain damages, paralyzed, and partless.
Dear Bluma and Nick, please correct this information in your note books.
