0 OPINI The Michigan Daily Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan Wednesday, March 22, 1989 Page 4 WE ARE AMERICANS AND JEWS AND WE ARE PROUD TO RECOGNIZE THE NEW STATE OF PALESTINE. AT THIS HISTORIC TIME PLEASE JOIN US. This historic statement from the JEWISH COMMITTEE ON THE MIDDLE EAST has already been endorsed by more than a thousand American Jews including Jewish Professors at over 100 Universities. Whether you are Jewish or not please join and support this vital effort. Vol. IC, No. 117 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor MI 48109 i Unsigned editorials represent a majority of the Daily's Editorial Board. All ot ar cartoons, signed articles, and letters do not necessarily represent the opinion of the Daily. Stop terror tactics ON MARCH 6, a physician who had reprinted an advertisement criticizing Israel's treatment of Palestinians found his Trenton clinic vandalized. Dr. Rafeek Farah, a Palestinian physician, ran the advertisement (reprinted at right) in the Friday and weekend edi- tions of the Detroit Free Press. That weekend he received threatening phone calls, and the windows of his office were broken. This is not an isolated incident. It is part of a systematic and organized campaign to squelch debate on the is- sue of Palestine/Israel. In 1985 the Jewish Defense League assassinated Alex Odeh, a Palestinian-American ac- tivist, according to the FBI. Last month the B'nai B'rith International sent a fundraising letter to its membership Which stated that the "presence of Arab students on our college campuses is poisoning the mind of our young peo- ple." Last week, the Palestinian shanty, Which memorialized 500 Palestinians Jkilled by the Israeli army since the be- ginning of the Intifada, was destroyed. These incidents are indicative of the tactics of terror used to silence Pales- tinians and those in solidarity with their legitimate aspirations for self-determi- nation and statehood. The original advertisement was paid fpr by the Washington, D.C.-based Jewish Committee on the Middle East (JCOME), and signed by its executive Fommitteea group of fourteen rabbis, lawyers and professors. In the adver- tisement, JCOME deplores the Israeli policies of beating and killing Palestinians, argues for Israeli negoti- itions with the PLO and recognition of p Palestinian State in the occupied Restore wom March is Women's History Month, challenging traditional academia to re- *store women to their deserving place in history. Restructuring the educational system is a vital part of the women's movement with repercussions far be- yond the bounds of college campuses. Historically few women have held positions of power, or fulfilled roles that this society deems important. Ar- guably, all the mothers in this country are more important than Donald Trump, but history will not remember them. In addition, history books and the men who write them have territories, and demands that the United States cut aid for Israel until it respects the rights of Palestinians. "For some years we have witnessed Israel increasingly deviating from po- litical policies that we find acceptable and from moral values that we hold dear. These developments are not the responsibility of any particular political party in Israel but rather stem, in our judgement, from a tragically misguided approach to the Arab world in which Israel is located, a racialist ideology and a growing militancy. We can no longer condone or be associated with such Israeli behavior, nor, do we be- lieve, should our country." Mark Bruzonsky, JCOME's execu- tive chair, said that he and other mem- bers of the organization have also been subjected to hate mail and threatening phone calls. Bruzonsky said, "This is sort of response is very expected... various leaders in the Jewish commu- nity try to undermine our actions by printing statements such as the one that the Mayor of Oak Park, Charlotte Rothstein, came out with stating the ad was a misrepresentation." The JCOME advertisement reveals the division in the American Jewish community over how to deal with and think about Israel. The harassment and violence which JCOME and the doctor who reprinted the advertisement were subjected to reveals the lengths to which apologists for the State of Israel will go to stifle those who challenge it. But efforts to silence opposition to Is- rael will not stop the flow of legitimate criticism and debate. Until voices such as JCOME's are taken seriously, there can be no resolution to the conflict. len's history There are several groups on campus working directly on the issue of women's history. The Baker-Mandela Center is videotaping interviews with local Black women to construct an oral history of women of color in the area. Working on women's history is an important way to celebrate this month. However, there are also many opportunities on campus to take direct action on women's issues. The Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center (SAPAC) always needs volunteers. Currently it needs students for office work and staffing the rape crisis line this summer. The Ann Arbor Coalition Against Rape is organizing the annual "Take Back the Night" march and rally to take place on April 15. Organizational meetings are being held regularly, and all women are encouraged to attend the march The Coalition to Defend Abortion Rights (CDAR) combats right-wing at- tempts to close down abortion clinics. The group anticipates strikes on clinics across the state this Friday, and needs people to help keep the clinics open. Also on the issue of abortion, the Na- tional Organization for Women (NOW) is sponsoring a march on Washington, on April 9, to advocate the Equal Rights Amendment and uphold legal abortion in the face of new court chal- lenges. A bus for interested participants will run from Ann Arbor to Washing- ton. We are Americans and Jews and we come together at this time publicly to express our strong desire to see the United States take meaningful steps to dissociate our country from the policies of Israel and to support mutual recognition between Israel and the new State of Palestine. For some years we have witnessed Israel increasingly deviating from political policies that we find acceptable and from moral values that we Fold dear. These developments are not the responsibility of any particular political party in Israel but rather stem, in our judgement, from a tragically misguided approach toward the Arab world in which Israel is located, a racialist ideology and a growing militancy. We can no longer condone or be associated with such Israeli behavior, nor, do we believe, should our country. In recent years Israel has twisted away from basic commitments made at Camp David in 1978; annexed further territories, including East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, while continuing to expand settlements in all the occupied territories; and grotesquely invaded Lebanon, resulting in the death of tens of thousands of Lebanese and Palestinians as well as hundreds of Israelis and Americans, and the taking as hostages of others. Furthermore, Israeli policies and attitudes toward the Palestinian people have made it evident that only major changes in Israel's basic posture will allow for a peaceful political settlement with the Palestinians. Israeli complicity in Irangate and Contragate coupled with Israel's employment of American Jews as spies against our country further underscore the growing dangers inherent in the current U.S.-Israeli relationship. The close identification in the public mind between Israel and Jews - an equation vigorously fostered by both the Zionist movement and the American Jewish lobby, which has come under its control - threatens to stig- matize Jews everywhere. The recent acts of killings, beatings, curfews, expulsions and house arrests- - all against unarmed Palestinians living in areas Israel has occupied for 21 years- further demonstrate that Israel has be-t come a badly divided country with many unfortunate similarities to the situation that prevails in South Africa.t Our ancestors came to the United States because, as a result of their Jewishness, they were discriminated against and abused. The European ex- penene cuminated in the horrors of thef"; azi Holocaust.Howtragicthat in our own time the very State established by Jews in the aftermath of this evil has become a place where racialism, religious dis- crimination, militarism and injustice prevail: and that Israel itself has become_ a pariah state within the world community.t Events taking place today are all too, reminiscent of thepo groms from which our own forefathers fed two and three generations ago - but this time those in authority are Jews and the victims are Moslem and Christian Palestinians. We believe that Israel's course could not be maintained but for the continuing financial, political, military and covert support of the U.S. government. And we fear that unless firm steps of disengagement from Israel are taken now our country might get dragged into a major war for which preparations are under way. In addition, we believe that unless the United States takes serious steps to distance itself from Israel the Israelis will mistakenly continue to think that the course they are on is acceptable to the American people. For all these reasons we believe the time has come to normalize the U.S. relationship with Israel. A complete re-evaluation of what has become since 1967 the American sponsorship of Israel is required. The unprecedented amounts of economic aid should be cut back over the next two to three years to much smaller levels. Furthermore, the considerable military and intelligence assistance should also be radically reduced. Unfortunately, in recent years much the opposite course has been followed, and Israel has practically become a ward of the United States. We urge an urgent and open debate about the serious problems and dangers which have resulted from the current structure of U.S-Israeli relations. Few foreign policy issues are of such importance to our country. Consequently, we urge everyone, including our elected public officials, to resist the widespread inhibitions from speaking up about Israel, inhibitions which result from the severe financial, political and ideological pressures often brought to bear against those who do. 6 6 0 Wihey, in the course of Duman events ~it becomnie cessarytar T epope. WHAl J1 I MNONSEW~?' . 5 r ,t ... . fir. r" ,r 'DAA 71* r , We further believe that the time is over- due for negotiations between the Israeli government and the PLO. which is quite clearly the chosen representative for the great majority of Palestinians - negotia- tions that should quickly lead to full recog- nition of the Palestinian State in todays occupied territories and reasonable security guarantees for all parties. In the security guarantees we think our country should participate; but no longer in the financing and supporting of the kinds of policies Israel has been pursuing. The con- tinual oppression and denial of Palestinians of their right to 'self-determination is an in- justice which has become intolerable not only to those demonstrating for their freedom in Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza and throughout Israel itself. The citizens of Israel, of course, will ultimately choose their own country's des- tiny. But at the very least the citizens of the United States should stop financing and supporting policies that are contrary to the principles and values we hold precious as Americans and Jews. az R The Executive Committee of(JCOME : Professor Yi gal Arens University of Southern California Los Angeles. CA Rabbi Leonard Beerntan Los Angeles, CA1 Pro~f ssor Ioel Beinin . MiddleLast Histors .Stanford Univ. Palo Alto. CAl Mark Bru:onskv Writer and lawyer. Former Washington Associate of World Jewish Congress Washington. DC Ribbi Susan Einbinder New York. NY Protesser Richard Falk International Law, Princeton University Princeton. NJ Professor Herbert Hill University of Wisconsin at Madison: Former Labor Director NAACP Madison. WIl Pr'ofessor Zachary Locknan Middle East History. Harvard Univ. Cambridge. MA Pro fessor .Sevnour Melman Columbia University New York, NY Projfessor Don Per-et- Middle East Studies, State Univ. of N.Y. Binghamton, NY Rabbi Michael Robinson Croton-on-Hudson. NY Henrv Schwar:schi/d Jewish Peace Fellowship: New York, NY Professor Steven Schuwar:schild Philosophy and Judaic Studies Washington University: St. Louis, Mfg Richard Walden Attone s Los Angeles, C A The original advertisement paid for by the Jewish Committee on the Middle East. Circle of violence By Pam Galpern The New York Times, in an article dis- cussing the recent change in the Immigra- tion and Naturalization Service's (INS) policy toward Central American refugees, called a new INS detention facility being built in Bayview, Texas a cross between a summer camp and a military base. Perhaps I went to a unique summer camp, but somehow I do not associate being forcibly detained in makeshift tents with crowded conditions and inadequate sanitary facili- ties, being denied access to legal counsel, being pressured to return to dangerous if not fatal conditions in one's country of origin, and being purposely denied infor- mation concerning one's legal rights, with summer camp of any sort. On February 20 of this year the INS initiated a new policy to deal with the massive flow of refugees from Central America. The new policy is designed to discourage the refugees from entering the United States by judging applications on the day they are received and by detaining those who are denied in the conditions mentioned above. The result has been the speedier rejection of applications. Previous policies allowed refugees to remain 'at liberty' while their applications were be- ing processed. At liberty, however, meant that the refugees were confined to the limitations of a certain area, in Texas and the Rio Grande Valley, stretching 100 miles into the United States beyond the Mexican border. The Valley became a jail without walls, and because refugees are denied work permits, they were unable to gain access to housing, food, or jobs. This caused a massive strain not only on the Central Americans themselves, but also on the small South Texas communities which are thus forced to absorb the in- creasing numbers of refugees. Why the spiraling influx of refugees from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua? Different factors underlie the causes of emigration from those coun- tries. For example, most Nicaraguans are fleeing for economic rather than political reasons, the Nicaraguan economy having been devastated by nine years of U.S. sponsored war and a trade embargo. Refugees from El Salvador, on the other tional Liberation Front/Revolutionary Democratic Front (FMLN/FDR). U.S. aid is used to terrorize the population into submission. Government troops and death squads have assassinated more than 70,000 civilians, and abducted or 'disappeared' another 8,000 over the past eight years. This incredible repression has been ac- companied by the constant bombings of rural communities, part of a counter in- surgency plan designed to separate the guerrillas from their civilian supporters. As a result, families and often entire vil- lages have abandoned their native homes in order to flee government sponsored the results of the problem it has created. The new INS policy is accompanied by the construction of numerous new .deten- tion centers. I visited a detention center mn Harlingen, Texas last summer. The pris- oners (for that is what they are) were. dressed in bright orange jumpsuits and: woken at 5 a.m. for rollcall, only to sit: around all day with nothing to do but' watch television. Some had been in deten-- tion for as long as 9 months, and many; were being pressured to return to their: countries despite the danger they would: face. The INS is legally required to provide the refugees with access to legal counsel; the list of lawyers given to the refugees' included mostly disconnected phone num-I bers, or names of lawyers who do not deal with asylum cases. The name of the one- service in the Valley offering free legal aid to refugees, Proyecto Libertad, is not in- cluded on the list, although they are fight- ing to be. INS judges are not elected, but* rather appointed. Asylum hearings area conducted in English, with only direct questions posed to the refugees translated, rendering them helpless in figuring out what is going on. The conditions were de- plorable. I can only begin to imagine how# much they have deteriorated as the num- bers of refugees have skyrocketed, and the policy has been changed to rush the pro- cess, if not discourage the refugees coming altogether. The answer to this problem seems ob- vious: should the U.S. cease giving aid to El Salvador, the popular forces in that country will have the opportunity estab- lish the peaceful and more egalitarian society they are proposing. Should the aid continue, the fighting and government re- pression will continue, causing an ever- increasing refugee problem for this coun- try, as well as continuing the daily vio- lence facing the Salvadoran people. As part of Central America Awareness week the Celayas, a Salvadoran refugee family living in Sanctuary here in Ann Arhr will h ecnnLking a traditional consistently marginalized women's pontributions - ignoring, for example, the leading role women played in the ivil Rights Movement. Women's History Month is part of an effort to restore these women who have been pbscured to their place in history. The largely-male educational ;stablishment (out of 440 full profes- Robert Carris Salvadoran refugees in Colomon- cagua, Honduras. There are more than 8,400 refugees in the camp, more than 5,000 of them young children. violence. One quarter of the population are currently internal refugees, while over 1.2 million people have fled the country. Refugees are not coming to this country from El Salvador by choice; they are flee- ing for their lives, leaving their homes and communities which are being destroved h 0