Ryan ChartrandOn Monday, a 70-year-old woman was killed in Israel’s southern Negev region when one of three Qassam rockets fired from Gaza by Hamas hit a house.
On May 10, Jimmy Kedoshim, 48, was also killed in Kfar Aza in southern Israel when a mortar shell fired by Hamas landed on his front lawn as he was gardening.
Most people probably did not hear about these because no one shouted “massacre, massacre.” After all, it is the Israelis who die. Who cares?
The Students for Peace and Justice in the Middle East and their adviser have declared this week Palestinian Awareness Week, with films, speeches and a Wall of Oppression on Dexter Lawn. What they have not done is any justice to either side of this issue.
They always treat the Palestinians as victims, where everything that happens to them is someone else’s fault. So long as the Palestinians are treated this way, and as long as they are not held responsible for what they do, or do not do, there will be no peace and no justice in the Middle East.
Similarly, for them, Israel is always at fault. If terrorists wear an explosive belt, packed with ball bearings and nails, and explode themselves in buses, at Passover seders and weddings, and in pizza parlors and university diners, and Israel, in response, builds a wall to keep them out, it is solely Israel’s fault. If Palestinians launch more than 6,000 Qassam rockets into the civilian areas of Israel, intending to inflict maximum damage onto civilians, it is still Israel’s fault when she responds.
Even though the Jews and Israelis have been the subjects of unbelievable atrocities the world over, they accuse Israel of any and every bad deed any nation has ever done, including racism, war crimes, apartheid, Nazism and many more.
What is sad is that by eliminating any reference to the opposite side of the equation, they delegitimize Israel, teach others to hate one people, and advocate the destruction of Israel.
Unfortunately, there are many young students on this campus who only see this side and believe in this rhetoric. It is unfortunate but true. No one can stop this group and their faculty associates from teaching hate. But they can learn on their own and study the subject by considering the real causes of hate and injustice, not what these people say.
Justice should be for both people, and peace is between two people, not just for one. Think about it.
Benjamin Goodman is a San Luis Obispo resident and a guest columnist for the Mustang Daily.