May 1989, Page 24

Other People's Mail

"Gentlemen don't read other people's mail," an Idealistic American official exclaimed between World Wars I and II as he abolished US cryptographic counterintelligence programs. Times change, however, and some letters by or to other people are as informative for our readers as anything we might write ourselves.

Will Anti-Arafat News Bias Ever Cease?

To the Editor, The New York Times: Feb. 24, 1989

National Public Radio reported this morning in its 6 a.m. news bulletin that Yasser Arafat publicly stated his willingness to travel to Israel to seek peace, even though he feared assassination. The statement was made in what NPR called an "unprecedented" news conference with a group of Israeli journalists.

Arafat's remark is noteworthy only in that this is the first time, as far as I know, that any PLO leader expressed a readiness to travel to Israel. There is nothing new in his desire to negotiate a political solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict; a desire that dates back to the early '70s.

The PLO chairman's statement immediately conjured up images of Anwar Sadat's speech to the Egyptian Parliament on the eve of his 1977 trip to Jerusalem. So, it was with great interest that I read Joel Brinkley's "news analysis" in today's paper, "Israel and PLO: Pressure Grows for Negotiations." What I found is what I have come to expect from Brinkley and his editors humdrum reporting and mediocre analysis bereft of inconvenient facts, all neatly couched in the perspective of those in power in Israel and the US.

Not surprisingly, Arafat's offer to travel to Jerusalem for the sake of peace, along with the attendant images of Sadat's historic voyage, was conveniently suppressed. Yet, it is precisely Arafat's offer, like all his previous offers to negotiate a political settlement, that constitutes the source of the pressure on Israel that Brinkley is purportedly writing about. But Brinkley writes as if none of this is happening.

In fairness to Brinkley, he does tell us that "an Israeli television journalist managed to interview Mr. Arafat in Cairo ' " and that seven other Israeli journalists "evaded" an Israeli ban on talking with the PLO to hold another interview with the PLO chairman. But strangely, not a word of what Arafat told his interviewers is revealed; or whether Brinkley even bothered to find out, as a curious reporter might have, what Arafat told his interviewers. We learn only that the television interview was "banned" (i.e., censored entirely) by the Israeli broadcast authority It is as if the ban extended to the Times as well.

This is exactly what careful readers of the Times have come to expect of Brinkley. But it would be unfair to single out only Brinkley. I can still recall similar illuminating reports from Brinkley's predecessor, Thomas Friedman, whose reporting from the Middle East earned him at least two Pulitzers. Can one be far off for Joel Brinkley and his editors?

Nabeel Abraham, Dearborn, Mi.

P.S. It is perhaps worth noting that NPR seems to have pulled Arafat's announcement from subsequent news reports on its "Morning Edition" program. Could it be they had a look at this morning's Times and discovered to their horror that they had reported something deemed unfit to print?

In Defense of Human Rights

To the Editor, Washington Post: Feb. 17, 1989

Human rights judgments, suggests a Post editorial (Feb. 8), are "a laminated affair." Unfortunately for the victims of human rights abuse in Israel and the occupied territories, the editorial itself seems like a piece of lamination, glossing over their tragedy with reflections on the ideological differences between Israel and the Soviet Union. No amount of lamination is going to change the fact that a democratic government that is responsible for killing, beating, torture, and unfair imprisonment is no less culpable because its activities provoke "a deep national debate."

These layers of philosophical argument do not hold moral force when they lead to observations such as: "the Israelis are in trouble on the West Bank." With more than 366 of their number dead, with more than 22,000 who have been wounded and thousands imprisoned, the Palestinians are the ones in trouble. This is not merely a question of language or style, it is a question of perspective. Those of us who document human rights abuses, and that includes the Department of State, must count the victims and accurately record their plight. Why a government has found itself responding to political problems and political violence by sanctioning violence against individuals and groups is a question for theorists. How many it has killed, tortured, and wrongfully imprisoned, and how it can be encouraged to stop such behavior, are questions for human rights activists to ask in order to stop torture and save lives.

Visualize the arm of a teen-ager held out by soldiers and broken at midshaft, a rock thrower lying dead with a bullet in his back, or an infant in her cradle asphyxiated by tear gas. Next, record the name and age of each person who has been abused—and chronicle dozens of deaths as a result of plastic bullets, hundreds of deaths as a result of high-velocity bullets, and many thousands of wounded people. Finally, count the thousands imprisoned without trial and the scores tortured. Now, turn to an editorial by the Post and read, "what counts most, however, is the nature of the system."

Surely, any government that is unwilling or unable to protect the human rights of all should be scrutinized and censured—whatever name it goes by. What counts most is documenting the government's protection of individuals and its respect for their fundamental human rights.

Now that the Department of State has forthrightly documented human rights violations on the West Bank and Gaza, Congress and the administration must act. The Israeli government must be asked to cease the policy of "force, might, and beatings." It must stop the excessive use of live ammunition and plastic bullets on demonstrators, and free those Palestinian lawyers, journalists, intellectuals, and others who have neither used nor advocated violence and who are now being held under administrative detention.

It is not uncommon for our politicians to be asked to write to governments around the world about human rights violations. In the experience of Amnesty International and other human rights groups, this has repeatedly proved effective in saving lives. How many victims of torture and unfair imprisonment would still be languishing in prison if those who wrote believed it was more important to critique the system than to stop the abuse? Those who wish to make human rights an ideological football lose sight of the individual victims, who so often are minority populations. Torture must be eradicated whether it is practiced in Chile, Cuba, the Soviet Union, or South Africa. The governments of the world must learn once and for all that there are no lesser peoples on earth.

John G. Healey, Executive Director, Amnesty International, Wash., DC.

In the Footsteps of Martin Luther King

To Moshe Arad, Israeli Ambassador to the US: Jan. 6, 1989

Thank you for the invitation to attend the reception and program in commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on Monday, Jan. 9, 1989. I have attended this affair in the past two years, but this year I cannot, in good conscience, be present.

My absence is my personal protest against the many human rights abuses the Israeli government has committed against the Palestinians: the deportations, notably of Mubarak Awad, the leading proponent of non-violence; the administrative detentions; the closing of schools and universities; the demolition and closing of houses; the disconnection of international telephone communications; and the maintenance of Ketzoit detention camp, which the chief justice of the Israeli Supreme Court has criticized.

Having visited Israel and the occupied territories, I have a real appreciation of Israel's security concerns. Nevertheless, I deplore the government's dealing with the intifadah and cannot participate in the embassy's commemoration of Dr. King.

Phyllis McClure, Washington, DC.

B'nai B'rith Retraction Letter

To Jim Ennes: Feb. 10, 1989

Mr. Reich has asked me to respond to your recent letter.

The letter you mention was created by an independent mail order company. Through carelessness, it slipped through our review process. When we received a complaint, we withdrew it immediately and ordered all remaining copies destroyed. We changed our review process. We have written a letter to all recipients of the first letter expressing our regret and clarifying our position. We take full responsibility for having made a mistake. We have taken steps to prevent a recurrence. We have made these actions known to all who have inquired.

B'nai B'rith has a 150-year history of fighting the defamation of all peoples. One must suspect, therefore, that those who insist on further belaboring this incident do so in pursuit of a political agenda, not of justice.

Arthur Shulman, Director of Communications, B'nai B'rith International, Washington, DC.

Media Slant on Middle East

To the Editors, Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Feb. 1, 1989

Your Dec. 14 editorial describing Yasser Arafat's hands as "stained with the blood of innocents" looks like part of the media's reflexive demonizing of the Palestinians and their usual portrayal of the Israelis, as the good guys, people just like us.

When the Palestine Liberation Organization commits an atrocity, it is terrorism; but when Israel bombs refugee camps (as it has done hundreds of times in the last 20 years, causing thousands of deaths), shells Beirut to rubble. or gases, shoots, beats, or tortures Palestinian children, the act becomes "self-defense" or "just retaliation." When Middle East violence is put into context, and causes and effects are examined, then both Israelis and Palestinians are guilty of terrorism—but, of course, Israel has our backing, $3 billion worth.

The name of the American tourist who was murdered by Abu Abbas on the Achille Lauro and the name of the US diver killed on Flight 841 by Shi'ite terrorists are well-known to all, thanks to US newspapers and television. But does anyone know the name of the Swedish diplomat and UN mediator who was assassinated in Jerusalem by Yitzhak Shamir's death squad, the LEHI?

Or do we know the names of any of the 258 residents of Deir Yassin, who were murdered by former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin's terrorist group, the Irgun? How about the 103 passengers killed on a civilian airliner shot down by the Israeli air force when it strayed over Sinai in 1970? Or the 10,000 killed, mainly civilians, when Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982? Does anyone remember any of the names of the 34 sailors killed on the USS Liberty by the Israeli air force and navy in 1967?

Israeli leadership has a brutal past, but one never reads any off-the-cuff comments about the blood of the innocent on Shamir's or Begin's hands.

The American media have a responsibility to report the Middle East fairly and honestly Much is at stake, not the least of which is the integrity of this country's reporters and editors.

Margo Dakss, Forth Worth, TX.

Israeli Bloodletting

To the Editors, Forth Worth Star-Telegram: March 10, 1989

The positioning of a couple of stories next to each other in your March 1 paper shows the Star-Telegram has a well-developed sense of the ironic.

In the center of Page 7, you ran a story under the headline, "No Israeli attacks, US tells PLO," the gist of which was that if the Palestine Liberation Organization doesn't stop attacks against Israel, the United States won't talk to the PLO anymore.

Above this story was a second one under the headline, "Israeli air attack on guerrillas in Lebanon hurts 26 children," which went on to describe "panicked children 4 to 10 years old, some with blood streaming down their faces ... wounded by shrapnel and glass shards."

I wonder what our government is going to do if Israel doesn't stop bombing, beating, and shooting Palestinian children. Will Uncle Sam continue to give Israel $3 billion a year of our hard-earned dollars? I wish our politicians had enough backbone to "just say no" to Israel.

John Taylor, Fort Worth, TX

Death from Interrogation

To the Chairman of the Knesset, Minister of Police, Minister of Justice, Minister of Health, and others: March 7, 1989

The death of Mahmoud Yussuf Alayan on the 5th of March in Gaza Central Prison while in the hands of the General Security Services appears to be a copy of the deaths of at least eight others who have died as a direct result of interrogation since the beginning of the intifadah.

In each case the prison authorities have been allowed to get away with a cover-up operation, with the collaboration of the Abu Kabir Institute who carry out official autopsies, and surely with the blessing of the prime minister's office and the Ministry of Defense, giving the security services an effective license to continue their brutal interrogation methods.

We therefore demand: a) an independent autopsy; b) a full, independent and public inquiry into this and all such incidents; and c) the punishment of those responsible.

Mansur Kardosh, Human Rights Association, Nazareth, Israel

Arabs Die By Fin in 'Worker Lockups'

To the Editors, Gannett Westchester Newspapers: Feb. 17, 1989

Israeli journalist Gaby Nitzan of the news weekly Koteret Rashid reported in August that in the town of Or-Yehuda, three Palestinians locked into their work place overnight were deliberately burned to death during a wave of anti-Arab racism.

Nitzan concluded that the men could not have saved themselves from the outside, because the door was locked from the outside, a common practice of Israeli employers who. . ."lock up their Arab workers as if they were locking horses in a stable."

Twelve years previously, after a similar fire in which three West Bank workers died, another journalist, Nathan Durivitz, wrote in the daily newspaper Ha bretz, "I am horrified by the thought of what happened, by the fact that this could happen in my country and by the knowledge—made public after the fire—that many workers from the territories are locked in like slaves." Nevertheless "worker lockup" became Israel's law of the land in 1977.

Isn't it time that the US stopped giving Israel a $4 billion Oft from our tax money every year to help commit such crimes? A protesting postcard to one's congressperson and senators could be effective.

Edna Toney, Katonah, NY.

Objection to TVs Achille Lauro Special

To the Editors, Chicago Tribune: Feb. 20, 1989

In the Tribune's television guide, I read Lee Grant's statement about the courage of Marilyn Klinghoffer, who faced losing her husband to terrorism, then three years later succumbed to cancer.

Are there any networks planning TV movies about Ellen Odeh Nassab, who, at exactly the same time, lost her brother to terrorism, and four years later is facing her own death due to cancer?

Alex Odeh was killed by a bomb planted, by all reasonable evidence, by persons with a history of Jewish Defense League connections, but we barely heard mention of this in the press. Klinghoffer was the story of the day, and we all knew every detail of his family's life. To be sure, his death, and the entire hijacking itself, is amost deplorable action to be condemnedby all (Yasser Arafat was among the firstpublicly to denounce the action).

But just once, I want to see a movie explore what it is that pushes a human being into terrorist behavior, or to even be willing to die for one's national identity. I'd like to see a movie about the Odeh family, who chose instead to become activists for peace. Will such a story ever make its way to the screen?

Vicki Tamoush, Chicago, IL.