Apathy - Sunday Telegraph
Published in The Sunday Telegraph Sir, Your leading article headlined "Their own enemy" maintains that it is Palestinian self-oppression that is at the heart of their problems (Opinion - 25th April 2004). Most Palestinians live under occupation. They are tortured. They are arrested without trial. They are assassinated, shot and beaten up. They have their homes demolished, their farmlands torn up, their olive trees uprooted. Their lands are taken and colonised by a foreign people right under their noses. They cannot move from town to town, village to village, sometimes home to home. They cannot trade and most live in poverty. Palestinians who are now reaching adulthood had their schools and universities closed, depriving them of an education. Three-quarters of all Palestinians are refugees who cannot return to their own homes and villages. All the above is a deliberate assault, not just physically and economically but emotionally and psychologically, on an entire people. Is it any wonder that domestic violence has been on the increase, or that Palestinians feel traumatised? This is reflected by the bed-wetting, nightmares, speech difficulties and other disorders suffered regularly by Palestinian children as a result of the Israeli violence. The world watches, says a great deal, but does nothing. And somehow, your leading article argues, this is all self-abuse and not the fault of the Israeli occupation and colonisation? Never before has a victim had to account so much for the crimes of the perpetrator.
Chris Doyle
CAABU Director
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