"America blind to Palestinian abuse.: by John Hishmeh, Courier News, 6/30/04


 Editor:
Now that the killings of Iraqi prisoners have been revealed, the Israeli killings of Palestinian prisoners remains unknown to the American public. Most Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails are civilians and include doctors, lawyers and university professors. Israel is the only country in the world in which torture is legal. After arrest, Palestinians are typically accused of a crime and tortured until they confess, even if innocent.

The United Nations has reported killings of Palestinian prisoners, and the Palestinian Prisoners Society (available on the Internet) has documented 180 killings since the start of the Israeli occupation in 1967. Moreover, according to the human rights organization Human Rights Watch, "The magnitude of Israel's violations of the Convention against Torture is well-known to the committee, having been extensively documented by U.N. bodies and international, Israeli and Palestinian Human Rights Organizations."

Can we court-martial our own American soldiers for their abuse and killings of Iraqi prisoners and remain silent about Israel's abuse and killings of Palestinian prisoners? Should we continue to reward this inhumanity with more than $4 billion in U.S. economic and military aid to Israel each year while it continually violates humanitarian laws and treaties? I don't think so.

JOHN R. HISHMEH
South Bound Brook