Madam, - Clearly there are two narratives surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. However the article by the Palestinian Delegate General, Dr Hikmat Ajjuri (Opinion, May 15th) is based on gross distortions of historical facts. I would like to highlight the most obvious.
Dr Ajjuri claims that "the self-determination of the Israeli people has always rested on the denial of self-determination to the Palestinian people". Strangely, he overlooks the current negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in Jerusalem. Israel's stated goal in these negotiations is to see two states for two peoples living side by side in peace and security: the state of Israel that already exists as the homeland for the Jewish people, and the future state of Palestine as the homeland for the Palestinians.
At Oslo in 1993 and 1995 and at Camp David in 2000 Israel recognised the Palestinian right of self-determination. At Camp David it was Yasser Arafat who rejected the opportunity to establish a Palestinian state.
Throughout the decades of conflict, the problem has been that the Palestinians were not willing to compromise and accept the existence of Israel. They have been more concerned with the destruction of the Jewish state than with the establishment of the Palestinian state.
Dr Ajjuri argues that "In the Israeli version of history, the Palestinians brought this catastrophe [Al-Naqba] upon their own heads. . .no one, not even most Israelis, credit this". The fact is that unbiased historical investigations have shown that most Palestinians fled of their own accord or at the behest of the Arab command. They were following the orders of leaders such as the Iraqi prime minister and others who encouraged them to leave. The Syrian prime minister at that time, Khalad al-Azm, admitted in his memoirs the Arab leadership's role: "Since 1948 we have demanded the return of the refugees to their homes. But we ourselves are the ones who encouraged them to leave."
Some 160,000 Palestinians chose to answer Israel's call to stay and became citizens with equal status. Today nearly 1,500,000 Arabs are citizens of Israel.
Dr Ajjuri asserts that "in 1948 the Israeli army numbered 80,000, many of whom were trained regulars and veterans of the second World War". In fact by 1948, the Jewish defence forces had fewer than 19,000 soldiers who were armed and prepared for war. They had no artillery, no tanks and no aircraft, while the Arab armies had all these, plus over 35,000 soldiers trained and organised in modern military formation. The Holocaust refugees who escaped Europe and joined the fledgling Israeli forces had no military experience and were obviously not "war veterans".
Dr Ajjuri states that "whenever the Israeli leadership says it feels threatened, it feels free to serve collective indiscriminate punishment on the entire population there". Throughout his article Dr Ajjuri ignores the responsibility of Palestinians to stop the violence which prolongs this conflict. He ignores the 1,100 innocent Israeli civilians who died as a result of Palestinian suicide bombing and he ignores the continued rocket attacks which terrorise over a quarter-of-a-million civilians in southern Israel. This violence that has claimed so many innocent lives, which Dr Ajjuri calls "resistance" (the Intifada), was described by the Palestinian President Abbas as "a mistake" (quoted in Al-Rai, September 27th, 2004).
The continued Palestinian rocket attacks on Southern Israel, such as last Wednesday when a Grad rocket smashed into a crowded shopping centre in Ashkelon, prove that Palestinian terrorism remains a constant obstacle to peace. Israel's defensive measures, the security barrier and checkpoints, remain necessary to safeguard civilian lives.
The Palestinians have missed opportunity after opportunity to establish their own state. They could today, like Israel, be celebrating their 60 years of independence. Hopefully the current negotiations will bear fruit and the vision of two states for two peoples will be achieved soon, ending the suffering on both sides. - Yours, etc.
ZION EVRONY,
Ambassador of Israel,
Dublin.