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Thirty Years of Frustration

Another View of the Palestinian Dilemma

But an emotional narrative describing the traumas and suffering inflicted upon the Palestinians during the past 30 years without incorporating such reflections within a substantiated historical-political perspective that presents the victim and the enemy objectively would be as ineffective as Feldstein's article. His isolated emotional narrative only serves to perpetuate the mischanneled power of the press; for The Crimson to carry an article that comments on the entire issue of the dilemma of Israeli-Palestinian confrontation along the southern Lebanese-northern Israeli border in terms of a diary-type dialogue that portrays "fanatical heartless Palestinian terrorists" attacking "innocent Israeli kibbutznik victims" accomplishes little but to perpetuate the general ignorance of the reading public on the complex issue in the Middle East.

The Crimson would achieve the same negligible impact (in terms of informing the public on such a heated political issue) if it chose to devote an entire opinion page to a diary-type narrative of the 1948 Deir Yassin Massacre or to a daily account of life in a Palestinian refugee camp without first putting such an article in the proper historical-political context. A lead-in article giving general background information on the issue would enable the reader to discern the emotional biases and distortions implicit in the article.

All in all, I feel that it would have been much more substantive (in addition to reflecting a more responsible news coverage policy by The Crimson) if instead of devoting an entire page to Feldstein, it would have sufficed to have included a shorter passage revealing such an emotionally-colored perspective on the psychological traumas suffered by kibbutzniks. Arab Information Center Director Hatem Husseini elaborates on the point that the media is a culprit to perpetuating slanted perspectives on the subject:

The Palestinian people have been portrayed by western media as either helpless "refugees" or violent "terrorists." These stereotype images have been perpetuated by Zionists and advocates of the Israeli cause who sought to polarize the conflict and intensify passions. Rarely have the Palestinians been presented as human beings who have suffered a devastating tragedy, a people who yearn for peace and tranquility.

It is time for the American people to examine the conflict in an objective manner and to begin to learn about the Palestinians.... They are not fighting against Jews, but against Zionist ideology and institutions that have separated Palestinians from Jews and allowed the Israeli ruling elite to dominate and persecute the Palestinians. They are struggling, therefore, for the creation of a new society where Jews, Christians, and Moslems can coexist with equal rights within a secular democratic state.

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Nina J. Lahoud '78 is a Middle Eastern Studies concentrator of Lebanese-American descent. She spent the summer of 1975 in Lebanon during the civil war, and last summer was an intern for the Near Eastern desk of the State Department in Washington.

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