Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 3, 1990 TAG: 9003052174
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The atrocities committed by the Shamir government are too numerous to cover in this letter, but to shed more light on the plight of the Palestinians, I quote some statistics from my visit in late 1989:
Unarmed Palestinians killed by Israelis, more than 730; injured, 70,000; imprisoned under inhumane conditions, 7,000; displaced persons, more than 9,500; curfews, 4,250 days.
The hospitals are filled with young Palestinians with broken bones, gunshot wounds and inoperable brain damage. Many mothers have lost their fetuses due to tear-gas inhalation and rough treatment by the soldiers.
Another travesty is the closing of the schools for long periods and harassment of the schoolchildren by the settlers and the military. They control the water supply, the telephone system and the power. They have confiscated the most fertile and demolished or sealed hundreds homes.
The terrorists are not the Palestinians, for they have no guns, ammunition, truncheons or tear gas. They are in fact the victims of a vengeful government that occupies their land and destroys or confiscates their property.
Our government is largely responsible for this tragedy, for it gives Israel a million and a half dollars every 24 hours, part of which it uses to kill its neighbors. The United States has also failed to enforce Sections 502b and 116a of the Foreign Assistance Act, which make foreign aid contingent on the human-rights report of recipients.
\ ROBERT A. HAY RICHMOND
by CNB