--- Pat Morrison <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Date: Wed, 25 Aug 2004 12:23:13 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Pat Morrison <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Subject: Fwd: Letter to Editor
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> I don't know if they'll publish this, but since
> they're running features on the French
> resistance to occupation, I thought mention of
> Palestinians' occupation was timely.
> Small effort, but one I felt I needed to make.
> Share with the group if you wish.
> Pat
> From: Pat Morrison <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Subject: Letter to Editor
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> I read with interest the powerful story of the
> anniversary of the French resistance (Aug. 23
> Herald News). Madeleine Riffaud, just 20 at the
> time, volunteered to kill a Nazi in broad
> daylight to avenge the murder of a friend in
> her occupied French homeland. Today we hail
> those brave Resistance fighters as heroes. As
> the name implies, these men and women
> "resisted" the unjust occupation of their land.
> Their efforts helped pave the way for the
> eventual liberation of France and all of Europe
> from the evil that was Nazism.
>
> The comparisons are not exact, of course, but
> are Americans aware that there is another
> "Resistance" taking place, at a great human
> toll, in the Palestinian Territories? In the AP
> piece the Herald News ran on the French
> Resistance, Riffaud describes the situation in
> her homeland in 1944 and the reason thousands
> of French people decided to take action,
> despite the risk to their lives: "Paris was
> starving, without lights, without bread,
> without clothes."
>
> Currently more than 2 million Palestinians live
> as refugees in their country of origin, today's
> Israel. They are still without a state, many
> living in squalid refugee camps like the
> infamous Gaza Strip, since 1948. Because of
> Israel's stranglehold on the territories,
> unemployment exceeds 70 percent and the average
> Palestinian lives on less than $2 a day.
> Illegal Israeli settlement growth carves into
> Palestinians' land and fields, and the huge
> "security wall" snaking through the West Bank
> is cutting off entire villages from their
> families and livelihoods, creating a virtual
> apartheid state.
>
> As a professional journalist, I have been
> privileged to work in and report from or about
> Israel/Palestine on several occasions. Each
> time, Palestinians ask me the same question:
> Why do Americans, good people who love freedom,
> not understand that we are under occupation?
> Why don't you Americans tell your government to
> stop funding our oppression?
>
> Israel certainly has a right to its national
> security. But that security must not come at
> the price of injustice to and oppression of an
> entire people. To be fair, it's difficult for
> Israel to have a partner in dialogue when there
> are continued suicide bombings. But the cycle
> is never-ending and hurts both Israelis and
> Palestinians. A Palestinian bomber takes
> action; Israel retaliates by bombing a
> neighborhood or destroying homes. The violence
> cannot be condoned. But have we done enough to
> understand what prompts it?
>
> Strange, isn't it, how time and place color our
> attitudes. The French who in 1944 shot
> occupiers, blew up bridges and worked for their
> liberation were hailed as "the Resistance." In
> 2004, the Palestinian kids who throw rocks at
> Israeli tanks or bulldozers destroying their
> homes are called "terrorists."
>
> It's time for Americans to get both sides of
> the picture in Israel/Palestine. Look beyond
> the headlines for the reasons there's such rage
> and desperation. France was occupied for four
> years. Palestine has been under occupation for
> 56 years. Think about it.
>
> Patricia Lynn Morrison
>
> [Morrison, a former Joliet resident, was for 10
> years editor/general manager of the Catholic
> Explorer, newspaper of the Joliet Catholic
> Diocese.]
>
> EDITORS: I am temporarily living in Illinois
> pending a move to Vermont. My temporary address
> is:
> 9201 W. St. Francis Road
> Frankfort 60423
> phone: (815) 469-4895, ext. 317
>
> If this is too long for a letter to the editor,
> perhaps you'd consider it as an opinion piece.
> Thank you
>
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