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OPINION
| UPDATED JAN. 24
When Words Do Not Work
Palestinian suicide bombers are
acting out of desperation.
Quit whining about suicide bombers, Israel.
Get used to them or restore the rights and property of hundreds
of thousands of people you displaced in May 1948 and continue to
oppress in January 2003. An Israeli complaining that suicide bombers
are evil is like Hitler complaining that concentration camp inmates
should quit trying to escape because they’re causing problems
for the Gestapo.
Suicide bombing is not the best choice; it’s an irrevocable
choice, used only as a final alternative. Only the most desperate
— patriotic — apply. While not a desirable option, it
is a direct reaction to wholesale ethnic displacement, theft of
homeland and serial assassination.
Here’s a brief reminder of what the Palestinian people have
endured since Israel was carved out of their land in 1948.
According to the “CNN Special Report: Israel at 50” by
CNN Interactive writer Barbara McCann, “(in 1948) tens of thousands
of Palestinians fled their homes or were driven out. About 750,000
Palestinians were displaced, according to the United Nations.”
Put this on a personal level: If a group of foreigners invaded Arlington
and told you to move tonight because this is their country now,
what would your reaction be?
McCann also reports, “The voices of those who lost their homes
a half-century ago still quake with anger when they retell the tale.
Many have seen their houses taken over by Israelis, or torn down.
They recall that the late Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir once
said, “There was no such thing as a Palestinian. Many still
live under Israeli occupation.”
What would you do?
The Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center in Ramallah maintains a Web
site memorializing 100 Palestinian patriots who have been killed
by the Israeli army while defending their homes or just going about
their daily business. Seventeen-year-old Aseel Assela was “hiding
in an olive grove, seeking cover, when, suddenly, Israeli soldiers
rushed towards him. They grabbed Aseel and beat him with the backs
of their guns, threw him to the ground and shot him in the neck
from point-blank range,” according to the Web site.
Aseel was active in Seeds of Peace, a coexistence program. He was
not a suicide bomber. Yet, Israelis did not allow him to coexist
with them.
In 1948, newcomers from all over the world invaded Palestine, drove
the inhabitants off at gunpoint and declared a new nation.
Wouldn’t you fight back?
Every American elementary school student has heard Patrick Henry’s
famous challenge, “Give me liberty or give me death.”
These words assert one of America’s basic beliefs about its
hard-won liberty and cherished rights. The Virginia revolutionary
was saying that without freedom from tyranny and despotism, life
is not worth living. Put another way, there are some things worth
living — and dying — for, and one of them is liberty.
If I don’t have it, I am willing to fight and die for it.
The Palestinian people feel strongly about their God-given rights,
too.
Why shouldn’t a Palestinian choose the irreversible sacrifice
of suicide bombing? She has a right to self-defense.
Israel has the state-of-the-art weaponry provided by the United
States. All she has is her life.
It’s good that Aseel didn’t choose to be a suicide bomber.
He wouldn’t be any more dead. But if he had, could anyone blame
him?
“Give me liberty or give me death.” A meaningless phrase
or a tragic battle cry? It can’t be both.
—Andy McMillen is a Spanish graduate student.
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