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Page 4 -The Michigan Daily- Friday, January 15,1993

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Editor in Chief


420 Maynard Street
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109
764-0552

MATTHEW D. RENNIE
Opinion Editors
YAEL CITRO
GEOFFREY EARLE
AMITAVA MAZUMDAR

Edited and Managed
by Students at the
University of Michigan

Unsigned editorials represent a majority of the Daily's Editorial Board.
All other cartoons, signed articles, and letters do not necessarily represent the opinion of the Daily.
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A day to conider race, relations

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O n Mpnday the University will celebrate the
birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., one
of the most influential African-American leaders
of the twentieth century. Although the plight of
:ethnic minorities and women has improved over
the years, a number of recent racial incidents have
severely tested King's dream ofcreating one people
and one nation.
Students here at the University fought tire-
lessly to make King's birthday a holiday. The day
would be a time when University students dis-
cussed, debated, and generally pondered the state
of race relations in the United States.
Since then, events at the University have shown
that much healing is still required within the
community's diverse population. Many African-
American students on campus fought passion-
ately against deputization, understandably fearing
racist police activity. Social segregation between
the white and Black University community con-
tinues to preclude mutual understanding or coop-
*eration.
On the national level, the picture is far more
grim. Tensions reached a zenith after the Rodney
King beating, resulting in the race riot in Los
Angeles.
A similar incident occurred nearer to home,

taking the life of Malice Green. Still another inci-
dent occurred on New Years Day in Florida when
three men abducted and set afire Christopher Wil-
son. All were crimes of racial hatred.
Despite the perpetual difficulty in fighting racial
intolerance, Americans should remember the in-
herent optimism of King and the civil rights move-
ment.
In the present reality, Americans can bridge the
chasm caused by misunderstanding and hatred
through education. Today's children must be taught
at an early age to recognize the qualities of an
individual, rather than viewing others as "one of
them."
Eliminating the de facto segregation that char-
acterizes most public schools would foster racial
understanding. If this is unlikely in the foreseeable
future, teaching about the diversity in American
society, including lessons concerning homosexual-
ity, is the next best step.
In addition, the children must learn to appreciate
the great achievements and accomplishments of all
cultures - not only their own.
Since the nation is still nursing its wounds from
the racial unrest of the past year, this holiday will be
an opportune time for students to stop, think and
reaffirm the ideals of Martin Luther King's dream.


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ISSUES FORUM
Read it, know it, join the debate
Deportations are historical process ...


by Tom Abowd
As the United States initiates
yet another wave of bombing raids
against the Iraqi people, what be-
came clear during the invasion of
Iraq two years ago is today clearer
still: some U.N. resolutions must be
violently implemented, others are
to be ignored or forgotten. Re-
sponses to Iraqi actions - whether
illegal or not- have been swift and
devastating, yet one month after
Israel's illegal deportation of 415
Palestinians with out trial, nothing
has been done to ensure the imple-
mentation of U.N. Resolution 799

"clean of Arabs" or - in the words
of ex-Minister of Interior Israel
Koenig - "the Judiazation of the
land." Israel's first Prime Minister
David Ben-Gurion explained hon-
estly what the establishment of an
exclusive Jewish state must mean
for the Arab population when he
said 45 years ago: "We will say to
the Arabs 'move over.' If they are
not in agreement, if they resist, we
will push them by force." This rac-
ist vision has become the blueprint
for every Israeli administration and
thus, necessitates one way or an-
other deportations such as the latest
one.

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Another blow to abortion rights

If women are to have control of their own bodies,
abortion must be an option both de jure and de
facto. With the election of Bill Clinton and the
expected passage of the Freedom of Choice Act,
the first precondition seems assured - for four
years at least.
The new abortionbattlegroundis shifting to the
streets, where anti-choice militants such as Opera-
tion Rescue are waging a battle to deny American
women their legal right to abortion. Advocates of
legal abortion suffered a setback in this fight
yesterday when the Supreme Court ruled that
federal judges do not have the authority to prevent
blockading of abortion clinics.
The case, Bray v. Alexander, hinged on whether
the 1871 Ku Klux Klan Act could be applied to
clinic blockaders. The act, designed to allow fed-
eral intervention on behalf of Blacks who were
denied voting rights, prohibits conspiring to deny
any person or class of persons their civil rights.
Previously, the act had been interpreted to
allow federal courts to issue injunctions against
Operation Rescue. Now, it will be more difficult

for abortion clinics to seek protection against block-
ade. Congress must quickly pass legislation giving
federal judges this authority.
Justice John Paul Stevens pointed out in his
dissent that the 1871 act is designed to "protect this
Nation's citizens from what amounts to the theft of
their constitutional rights by organized and violent
mobs across the country."
Steven's analysis identifies the crux of the issue.
Abortion is still legal. Yet Operation Rescue, through
its sheer fanaticism, has effectively banned abor-
tion in much of the nation. Federally protected
rights such as abortion cannot be subject to nullifi-
cation by those opposed to these rights, and this is
precisely what the Ku Klux Klan Act is about.
The decision is indicative of the Court's recent
trend toward defining abortion as more of an inter-
est than a right, with a corresponding reduction in
federal protection. Advocates of legal abortion
must depend on federal and local laws as well as
grass roots activism. Unlike the constitutional pro-
tection of Roe v. Wade; none of these is secure from
temporary political shifts.

U.S. taxpayers supply Israel with over $4 billion
annually (and now $10 billion in loan guaran-
tees) and thus, supply the means to carry out
these kind of violations.

calling for the immediate and safe
return of all the expellees.
Israel's defiance of U.N. reso-
lutions has been consistent and un-
exceptional since the establishment
of the state in 1948 and has included
not only refusal to implement Secu-
rity Council resolutions calling for
the end to its occupation of the West
Bank, Gaza, Jerusalem, southern
Lebanon and the Syrian Golan
Heights but also those mandating
the return of Palestinians deported
by Israel in similar ways in years
past.
The most recent act of deporta-
tion must be understood as part of a
historical process, begun years ago,
to remove as many Arabs from Pal-
estine as possible. This policy of
exclusion has been referred to by
Israeli leaders variously as "cleans-
ing the land," making the land
Abowd is a Rackham graduate
student.

The dark history of Israeli ex-
pulsion implicates current Prime
Minister Yitzhak Rabin directly in
the removal of hundreds of thou-
sands of Palestinians from their
homes since the late 1940s.
Rabin was one of the men who
oversaw the campaign in 1948 that
removed more than 700,000 Arabs
by Jewish forces and destroyed
more than 400 Palestinian villages
after the inhabitants had been driven
out.
Thousands more Palestinians-
supposedly equal citizens of Israel
- were expelled from the Galilee
region during the Israeli attack on
Egypt in 1956. This fact was re-
vealed by Rabin, himself, who at
the time was commander of the
region where these expulsions took
place. He estimates that 3,000-to-
5,000 Arabs were driven off their
land by Israeli forces to Syria at that
time (Yediot Ahronot, Nov. 2,
1982). The current Prime Minister

was also involved in the expulsion
of 300,000 more Palestinians from
The most recent act
of deportation must
be understood as part
of a historical pro-
cess, begun years
ago, to remove as
many Arabs from
Palestine as possible.
their homes and farms in the days
and weeks following the June 1967
Israeli invasion of Egypt. In addi-
tion, a steady stream of activists,
community leaders and educators
(like those expelled in December)
have been thrown out of Palestine
since then in an attempt to crush any
resistance to Israel's occupation and
the establishment of a Palestinian
state. All have been prevented from
returning to their homes.
Article 501 of the U.S. Foreign
Assistance Act of 1990 mandates
that the United States cut aid to any
country found to be systematically
violating internationally recognized
human rights. This, like U.N. reso-
lutions, has also neverbeen enforced
in Israel's case (even though Am-
nesty International has exposed
Israel's extensive use of torture,
beatings, killings and expulsions).
U.S. taxpayers supply Israel with
over $4 billion annually (and now
$10 billion in loan guarantees) and
thus, supply the means to carry out
these kind of violations. Those in-
terested in a peaceful and just settle-
ment in the Middle East must call
for the consistent implementation
of U.N. resolutions and demand that
until the vast array of violent mea-
sures directed against Arabs under
Israelioccupation cease, all aid must
be cut.

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Finally, cooperation in Haiti

WXith the glut of international incidents, the
continuing crisis in Haiti has been rel-
egated to the back shelf of foreign policy con-
cerns. In recent months, key American foreign
policy leaders, including the president and presi-
dent-elect, have addressed Haiti only in the con-
text of the-refugee crisis in Miami. Finally, the
president-elect and others are discussing ways to
combat the human rights abuses that force the
Haitian people into boats bound for the Florida
coast. Without finding a cure to Haiti's political
problems, the mass exodus from the tiny Carib-
bean nation can't be curbed.
Human rights abuses are common place in
-Haiti today. The Organization of American States
(O.A.S.) sent an observation team to assess the
situation, but it is
forbidden to ven-
ture outside the
capital, Port-au-
Prince. Themili-
tary-backed -
Prime Minister
Marc L. Bazin,
condemned by
the United Na-
tions and the
O.A.S. follow-
ing the 1991
ouster of
Aristidehas thus
far refusedto co-'
operate with in-
ternational agen- Haitian boat people file past 1
cies concerned au-Prince's international airp
about human ton from Cuba on a Cuban ai
rights condi-f
tions.
There has been recent progress of late, how-

such efforts, encouraging diplomatic solutions and
promising an eventual reversal of the trade em-
bargo currently crippling the Haitian economy.
The Bush administration has until now shown
little interest in undoing the coup. Moreover, his
policy toward the refugees has lacked compassion
and was probably a result of racist sentiments
against Black immigrants.
The Clinton campaign promised to allow larger
numbers of Haitians into the United States. But
following the Nov. 3 victory, the president-elect
began inching away from the promise.
Now, however, constructive cooperation be-
tweenAristide, the United Nations, the O.A.S. and
the Clinton transition team give many Haitians
reason for optimism. If all the parties could forge a
settlement,
many poten-
tial refugees
may choose
to remain in
Haiti. More-
over, many
of the Hai-
tians waiting
in U.S. mili-
tary bases
may choose
to return.
Such a
develop-
ment would
AP PHOTO relieve the
watchful eye of a soldier at Port- president-
t Wednesday after their repatria- ficult oliti-
ner. cltis I
cal issue. I

...Israel trying to secure borders

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by John Blow
He was found face-down, his
hands tiedbehind his back, his cloth-
ing soaked in blood. An off-duty
border police officer, Nissim
Toledano had been abducted from
his home community in Lod, Israel
by Hamas, an Islamic fundamental-
ist organization formed with the
express goal of wiping Israel off the
map. He had been stabbed five times,
and strangled. If you depend on the
Daily for news, then you've prob-
ably never heard of Nissim
Toledano, or even of Hamas. It
seems that some events are more
newsworthy than others.
The murder of officer Toledano
was not the first such attack. Hamas
had claimed the lives of four other
Israelis in December alone. It was,
however, the first abduction of an
Israeli citizen inside of Israeli sov-
ereign territory, and it was this out-
rage which prompted the govern-
ment to order the temporary expul-
sion of 415 Hamas members.
The decision to issue the expul-
sion order was a difficult one, and
not tobe taken lightly. As described
by Knesset member Yossi Sarid,
the choice was "evil, but still a
necessary evil, and the least of other

It is a very strange set of social
justice values that has come into
play here, that the same people who
did not care about the violent mur-
der of either Jews or Arabs by Pal-
estine Liberation Organization

It is a very strange set of social justice values
that has come into play here, that the same
people who did not care about the violent mur-
der of either Jews or Arabs by Palestine Libera-
tion Organization (PLO) or Hamas death squads,
suddenly come to life at the opportunity to
condemn Israel.

pulsions were temporary, nor that as
such they are not covered by the
GenevaConventions. You werealso
never told that the deportees have
60 days in which to appeal their
expulsions on an individual basis.

(PLO) or Hamas death squads, sud-
denly come to life at the opportu-
nity to condemn Israel.
Since the beginning of the
intifada, 760 Palestinian Arabs have
been murdered in the administered
territories by PLO and Hamas en-
forcer squads. I can still recall viv-
idly the details from one such "col-
laborator" execution. He was a
school teacher in Gaza, dragged
from a classroom in front of his
pupils, to be hacked to death out-
side with knives and hatchets. I
also recall that neither the Daily,
nor the United Nations, nor any of
the others who have been so auick

With any luck, the Hamas activists
will still one day rejoin their fami-
lies and children. Nissim Toledano
he will never be going home to his
wife and children, again.
Israel haspubliclyoffered tosur-
render portions oTf the territory cap-
tured in 1967 in return for a peace
treaty and normalized relations with
her neighbors. This is a step which
none of the Arab governments has
been willing to offer in return. Al-
ready Israel has surrendered a land
mass three times the size of her own
territory in return for a peace agree-
ment with Egypt.
But the road to a settlement can-

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success
doesn't come soon, however, Clinton is still mor-