Westchester legislators wrong on BDS vote
Re “Westchester lawmakers right to condemn BDS,” June 26 letter:
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, known as BDS, stands on the right side of history in its fight against the 70-year illegal occupation of Palestine.
The Westchester County Board of Legislators showed cowardice in its condemnation of the BDS movement. Legislator Alfreda Williams of Elmsford displayed extraordinary courage in her opposition to the attack on the BDS movement. The Board of Legislators is just as wrong as Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who tweeted last year: “If you boycott Israel, New York will boycott you.”
It is appropriate that this is the 100th anniversary of the Balfour declaration that sanctioned and justified the illegal occupation of Palestine and displaced millions of Sunni Palestinians who had been living there for more than a century under the Ottoman Empire. This systemic human rights crime by the white Western world, namely Britain, the U.S. and Russia, used money and military force to authorize the British mandate on Palestine in 1923 and its partitioning in 1947.
We should be reminded that the establishment of Israel was an illegal act based upon the 1947 U.N. Charter that specified that land could not be assigned without the consent of the majority of the population. That was never authorized by the Palestinians.
Clifford Jackson
Larchmont
We are seeing a more realistic view of the Mideast
Re “Westchester lawmakers right to condemn BDS,” June 26 letter:
Like the BDS vote, this is more propaganda to compensate for the Israeli government’s actions. The repeated claim is that the wars of 1948, 1967 and 1973 were to push the Jews into the sea, when in 1948, it was Palestinians from Jaffa who were driven by the advancing Israeli army into the Mediterranean Sea and fled in open boats. Israelis overran 70 percent of Palestine while holding legal title to less than 10 percent of the country.
In 1967, Israel began the war with a surprise attack on Egyptian airfields. In that war, more than 200,000 Palestinians and more than 100,000 Syrians were driven from their homes. Many Palestinians lost their homes for a second time.
In 1973, Egypt successfully attacked Israeli fortifications on occupied Egyptian territory on the east side of the Suez Canal, but made no effort to invade Israel. Anwar Sadat, the Egyptian ruler, said the purpose of the war was to convince Israelis they could not have peace while occupying Arab land.
In 1973, Syrian forces successfully drove the Israelis out of the occupied Golan Heights, but they stopped at the Syrian-Israeli border even when they had the upper hand. They made no effort to invade Israel.
Israel is basically a 19th century European colonial state, attracting immigrants and funding while demonizing the natives and stealing their land to build an empire.
The national meeting of Jewish Voice for Peace, which supports the boycott movement to advance Palestinian rights and end the 50-year Israeli occupation, attracted 1,000 delegates this year, compared with 600 last year. It is encouraging that the current generation has a more realistic view of the Mideast.
David Mendenhall
Pomona