The Wall Street Journal published a pitiful op-ed and I replied with a letter to the editor. They did not chose to print mine, but I place it here, along with the two they did publish today.
Dear editor:
Norman Podhoretz's Pity the Palestinians? Count Me Out (April 9, 2014), left me astounded and dismayed. Why would any mainstream US media still print such a text? Why would Mr. Podhoretz not blush to espouse it?
He says: "I have no sympathy—none—for the Palestinians. Furthermore, I do not believe they deserve any." What educated person would think this statement relevant? Let's be reasonable: Palestinians are not seeking sympathy. We already have enough global sympathy to bottle and export it. What we are struggling and dying for, literally, is our inalienable right to freedom and independence. "The Kurds haven't got theirs" is not a serious argument against our aspirations.
That demonization of Palestinians continues apace is unsurprising, given that Israel, still waiting for Palestinians to turn into Zionists, is increasingly isolated and embattled. Living and working here as a Palestinian American businessperson since 1994 I've watched Israeli policy, time after time, disdain an equitable solution for a side-by-side peace with the people Israel uprooted in 1948 and occupies today with an army.
I, too, am an educated man. Hence I cannot accept as the eternal legacy of Jewish tradition a brutal project of slow-motion ethnic cleansing. In short, the future will prove that when Jews be Jewish their social justice credentials will kick in and not only end the Israeli military occupation, but will also allow for the end to discrimination of non-Jews in Israel, and open the doors of Israel for those Palestinians who were made homeless due to Israel's violent establishment. Then and only then, can Israelis and Palestinians truly expect to live in peace.
Sincerely,
Sam Bahour
Ramallah, Palestine
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303663604579504333757239404?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702303663604579504333757239404.html
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Oral history is much more than words on paper or voices on tape. It is a tool of resistance, an act of remembrance, and a platform to educate. As a foreign visitor to Palestine recently noted to me in a meeting, while unable to remember the exact quote or to whom it is credited: "History is meaningless if it does not inform today."
