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The Daily Tar Heel

Errors in Israel Column Show Author's Lack Of Knowledge on Subject

TO THE EDITOR:

Anne Fawcett's Oct. 18 column "Ties to Israel Make America Poor Mediator" describing Israel's relationship vis-a-vis the Palestinian Arabs contains no fewer than five historical and factual errors, and reveals her poor knowledge on the subject.

The "original plan" for dividing the region today known as Israel and Jordan to which Ms. Fawcett alludes was approved by the United Nations in 1947 in the form of Resolution 181, and would have provided both Arabs and Jews with respective homelands. But this resolution was rejected by the Arabs (who objected to any Jewish presence in the region), not by the Jews, and the former, including the countries of Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq, launched a military offensive in order to abort the Jewish state at its internationally approved birth.

Approximately 700,000 Jews were expelled from Arab countries as a result of the fighting; this figure is equal to the number of Arabs who fled Israel. While Israel repelled the attack, Jordan obtained control of eastern Jerusalem, including the Old City. During the next 19 years, the Jordanian Arab forces demolished 58 synagogues in the Old City, uprooted Jewish cemeteries and prevented Jews from visiting their holy sites on the pain of death. Israel liberated the Old City during the 1967 defensive war, when it was again attacked by Jordanian, Egyptian and Syrian forces, but following the way allowed the Muslim Waqf (religious authority) continued administrative control over the Temple Mount.

Today, Jews are not permitted to pray there, and Israeli police arrest those attempting to do so. Further, the United Nation's current disapproval of Israeli defense policies is nothing new; of 690 General Assembly resolutions before 1990, 429 were directed against Israel.

For a state that resides in 0.0001 percent of the total Arab lands (it is smaller than the state of Maryland), Israel receives a disproportionate amount of the world's hatred.

David B. Hoffman

Department of Biology

Class of 1999

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