In her viewpoint on Oct. 24th, ("The Arab-Jewish Tragedy," ) Tally Aliphas wrote, "In the Six Day War of 1967, Israel was attacked on all borders. Israel came out of that war taking the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan."
I recommend that Tally re-check her sources. As Israeli Prime Minister, Menachem Begin, said himself in a New York Times op-ed piece, "In June 1967, we again had a choice. The Egyptian Army concentrations in the Sinai approaches do not prove that Nasser was really about to attack us. We must be honest with ourselves. We decided to attack him."
My intention is not to pick on Tally for her misunderstanding but rather to make the point that I have realized through reading Viewpoints and listening to people at Tufts that there are many people who have misconceptions and a lack of knowledge about the conflict in the Middle East between the Arabs and Israelis.
The 1967 War is pertinent because the events that occurred right after it have serious implications on the situation today and on the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians.
On the 5th of June 1967, Israel started the Six Day War, conquered and occupied Eastern Palestine (the West Bank), Gaza strip, the Syrian Golan Heights, the Egyptian Sinai, and the Eastern part of Jerusalem.
In November 1967, after the war ended, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 242, reaffirmed later in Resolution 338, calling upon Israel to withdraw from the Arab territories they occupied during the war. The resolution emphasized the inadmissibility of acquisition of territory by war. Israel refused to comply with the Security Council Resolution.
Instead, Israel initiated actions to transform this Arab territory and tie it to Israel proper (the land gained in 1948). In East Jerusalem, Israel bulldozed the 350 Arab homes (known as the "Moghrebi quarter") that housed hundreds of Palestinians in order to create a new plaza in front of the Western Wall. It encouraged Jewish colonization of the conquered territories, leading to 400,000 Israelis settling in East Jerusalem, Gaza, and the West Bank, and 17,000 in the Syrian Golan Heights in clear violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, numerous UN resolutions (242 and 181(II)) and various other internationally recognized humanitarian laws.
It is obvious that Israel was intent on keeping the occupied Palestinian and Syrian territories. It has consistently increased and expanded its colonization, attempting to create facts on the ground with a large Israeli population in these areas. Israel did eventually relinquish control of the Sinai Peninsula back to Egypt, which led to peace between Egypt and Israel. However, Israel still refuses to return the rest of the occupied Arab territories to the Syrians and Palestinians.
In June 1980, Western European nations came out with the Venice Declaration, which accepted the legitimacy of the Palestinian national movement and its leadership, the PLO, and affirmed the illegality of the 1967 Israeli occupation of Arab territories as well as the continued Israeli colonization of these territories. They reaffirmed UN Security Council Resolution 242 and equal rights for the Palestinians in keeping with the UN General Assembly Resolution 3236 of Nov. 22nd, 1974. The latter established the rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination, national independence and sovereignty.
Feeling heavily pressured but not wanting to relinquish control of the occupied territories of 1967, Israel decided that it had to crush the PLO, the symbol and representation of the Palestinian right to self-determination, who had set up base in Lebanon. It launched an invasion of Lebanon in 1982 inflicting heavy damage. Israeli forces under the command of Ariel Sharon facilitated a mission to 'cleanse' the area of Palestinians. 3,000 Palestinians in the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila in Beirut were massacred.
The recent intifada (literally meaning "shaking off") is another attempt by the Palestinians to resist the Israeli occupation. Most of the violence between the Palestinians and Israelis is occurring in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. The Palestinians are urging the world to ask Israel to follow through with its 33-year old international legal obligation.
Basil Darwish is a second year Master's student in the Graduate school of Arts and Sciences.
