Friday, August 20, 2010

A Palestinian's Plea

From a Palestinian friend who read George Will's editorial, Skip the lecture on Israel:

I grew up in America. I was born in Jerusalem, but born an Arab, I cannot enter the city of my birth. I know the suffering conflict has caused both sides. In his article Mr. Will also knows suffering, but, in recognizing only Israeli pain and Palestinian terrorism, Mr. Will sounds like German officials mourning Ernst Rath, the German diplomat whose murder gave pretext to Kristallnacht. This conflict killed 1,000 Israelis since 2000, the same proportion the U.S lost in Vietnam, Mr. Will notes. He neglects 6,000 Palestinians, the same proportion of U.S fatalities in Vietnam, Korea, and World War II, combined, keeping the comparison. In the latest round of heavy fighting three Israeli, and over a thousand Palestinian civilians died. Like many, perhaps most, Israelis and Palestinians I grieve the suffering of each victim on either side. One is too many.

Israel’s first Prime Minister declared if he were Arab he “ would never make terms with Israel. That is natural: we have taken their country.” Some Palestinians share those sentiments, some do as Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said he would do if he were a Palestinian, and join terrorist organizations. Thankfully they are a minority.

In 2002 Arab nations joined the Palestinians in offering Israel recognition on its internationally acknowledged borders. In this drive for peace, Palestinians offered everything more we have to sacrifice, the dream of regaining the 78% of our homeland which was cleansed of Arabs to make way for Israel’s establishment. Like the Native American we need what sliver remains. The former Israeli defense and foreign minister Moshe Dayan told my people that “we have no solution, you shall continue to live like dogs, and whoever wishes may leave.” But there is nowhere to go. What more we have to offer; our hand in friendship and forgiveness we hold out gladly, hopefully. Sadly, that hand has been left outstretched for eight years, by an Israeli government which refuses to even discuss this proposal.

Unlike Mr. Will, I hope my moderate Israeli friends who join me in yearning for peace may cease to be a powerless fringe. They are too rare in a country where “death to Arabs” was an election slogan of the government’s second largest party.

Friday, August 6, 2010

Cancer, Birth Defects Skyrocket in Fallujah


Sixty-five years after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the American ambassador has finally appeared at the annual Peace Memorial Ceremony marking the events. New research in Fallujah, Iraq, however, finds increased levels of leukemia, infant mortality, and cancer, surpassing those caused by the bombing of Hiroshima. The survey, so far unmentioned in any major American media outlet, addresses the period following the American bombardment of the city in 2004 through 2009.

The findings, reported by Patrick Cockburn in the London Independent, dramatically confirm the suspicions of Iraqi doctors working in the region. Rates of leukemia, in particular, saw a 38-fold increase between 2005-2009, more than double the 1700% increase seen after the bombing of Hiroshima. Incidences of other genetic disorders also skyrocketed. Childhood cancer is up twelve-fold, cancer overall four-fold. Doctors complain of being inundated with serious birth defects, such as one girl born with two heads. The study found infant mortality rates of 80 per 1,000 births, four times greater than levels in Egypt, and eight times greater than those in neighboring Kuwait. The gender ratio at birth has also reached unnatural levels.

U.S commanders are accused of using indiscriminate and excessive violence in the bombardments of the city and have acknowledged deploying chemical weapons. What exactly caused the spike is unknown, but Dr. Chris Busby of the University of Ulster, who co-authored the study, suggests that "to produce an effect like this, some very major mutagenic exposure must have occurred in 2004 when the attacks happened." Without the cooperation of U.S military officials it is impossible to identify the specific munitions used, but the authors cite exposure to depleted uranium as a potential cause.

The study, entitled Cancer, Infant Mortality and Birth Sex-Ratio in Fallujah, Iraq 2005–2009, was published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.