Subhi Awad, Mullumbimby
Again and again (eg Wakil’s letter June 5) we are told that Palestinians (such as myself) are murderous and insane and want to wipe all the Jews off the map – that’s why we can never be allowed to be free.
Let’s examine that for just a second: a very broken Palestinian people with no army or power are betting their lives and their children’s lives on winning a war of genocide against a nuclear-power backed to the hilt by the USA.
We plan on doing this mostly with stones but also with a few homemade rockets. In your wildest dreams do you think any nation could possibly have that plan – does that seriously make any sense whatsoever to you?
The real reason that we resist is that Israel’s army has been brutally and painfully occupying our homes for generations. Here’s the proof: Palestinians who have Israeli passports and have some modicum of freedom and human rights seldom resist, but Palestinians in Palestine or Gaza who have no freedom or human rights resist all the time. If we are all mad and hateful (and murderous) why don’t we all resist? Could it be that, just like everyone else, we just want to be free? Crazy idea – I know!
The Geneva Convention on Human Rights reaffirms the rights of the occupied (Palestinians) to resist military occupation, including violent resistance; however, it does not grant the belligerent occupier (Israel) the right to defend their occupation.
The reason for that is that in all of human history there has never been an occupation that wasn’t resisted. The world’s diplomats understood that for the occupied not to resist is impossible. Resistance is a consequence of occupation as surely as death and pain.
It is as impossible for us not to resist as it is for Israel not to defend itself, but as Israel’s army is in our homes, Israel does not defend itself – it defends its brutal occupation.
When Israel withdraws to internationally recognised borders, as the world repeatedly urges it to do, then and only then will it be defending itself. You can’t park your tanks in someone else’s home and say I’m defending my tank – it really is preposterous!
You talk of old massacres as a solid reason for occupation and brutality, but there were massacres by Jews too – hundreds of them. My mother’s town, for instance, half Christian and half Muslim, the men were rounded up and butchered. Many other villages were completely wiped out.
You also say that Palestinians were allied with Hitler; maybe you forgot how zero Palestinians fought for the Germans but 12,000 Palestinians fought for the allied forces during WWII (Haaretz).
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
