Dear Editor:

The part of Palestine’s history, too often swept under the rug, is the terrorism that occurred during the British Mandate. During this period Zionist bombed police stations and assassinated British officials all the while expelling Palestinians from their homes and villages. Once the British retreated from Palestine in 1948, the Zionists ramped up the war on the Palestinian people driving millions away to live in the forced poverty of the refugee camps with little hope of returning to the lives left behind. This is an ongoing process with Zionist settlers misappropriating Palestinian people farms and homes. It is little wonder that they turn to violence.

This is not to excuse the violence, but to explain it as much of the reporting on this omits this terrible history focusing instead on the violent aspects of the Palestinian response. Of course violence is not the answer.

The war in Gaza is genocide. According to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948), a treaty which the USA has ratified, genocide includes killing or causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the targeted group and deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction, in whole or in part. The actions of the Israeli government certainly meet this definition.

The IDF has killed an estimated 53,000 people, 30 to 40% of them women and children. The indiscriminate killing continues with no end in sight. It also controls the flow of life giving supplies to the people trapped in Gaza.

Much is made of Israel's right to exist. But what of the Palestinians? What happened to their right to exist?  

We tolerate government because it is through government that we protect our society and culture. But when the government is used to oppress and deprive a people of their lives and livelihoods, its legitimacy is brought into question. If there is a solution to this conflict, it should not be a final solution.

Please contact your congressional  representatives to insist that we take a stand against genocide.

Fred Nehring

Boothbay