Not Invented

 

            I wish to rebut Andy Weiss’ article, dated April 4, describing the Palestinian people as misguided people with invented identity.

 

            I am a Palestinian American who lived in the occupied Palestine for 19 years.

 

            Israel, “the occupying power,” forced my family out of their land, which they owned for generations.  The Israeli government confiscated my family’s land and settled on it immigrant Jews. The Palestinians are being discriminated against, humiliated, and deprived from the basic human rights for the past 55 years.

 

            In his letter, he refers to some encyclopedia to argue that the Palestinians were vanished and there is no such place as occupied Palestinian land.

 

            I only go by the facts and not by falsifying history.  The fact is I have the deeds for the land that my family owned and is currently occupied by the Israelis.

 

            That proves that the currently occupied land is a Palestinian land.  And we, “the Palestinians,” will never forget our beloved Palestine.

 

            The Palestinian people are peace-loving people.  The Israelis are the ones who invaded us in 1948 and stole our land.  And in 1967 stole the rest of Palestine.

 

            The Israelis believe they can get away with anything even treating the Palestinians inhumanely by demolishing their homes, confiscating their lands, and treating them as second-class citizens.

 

            They actually believe that they are God’s chosen people.  What about us?  What are we?  God’s leftovers!

 

            All we are asking for is for Israel to give us our freedom and our legitimate rights.

 

Ziad A.

 

                                                                        [Readers please note: the author’s name was withheld by Jordan White for privacy reasons. The author signed his full name and his place of residence, which were duly published in the newspaper.]

 

                                                                         Published in the Contra Costa (Calif.) Times, April 18, 2003