Israel-S.Africa

To the Editors of The Crimson:

Comparing Israel to South Africa, as will be done in the conference referred to in yesterday's Crimson, shows an unsophisticated and shallow understanding of the helpless, passive resistance movement of the majority of the South African people. That a people practicing non-violence is required to carry identification is inexplicable, intolerable and must be ended in South Africa. That a group which wages violent battle against a government and is still permitted to work in Israel is required to carry security cards for entrance into the country is incomparable--such a comparison belittles the nobility of the South African people.

To say that Israel lacks legitimate security concerns ignores a history of terror against innocent civilians as recent as recent news that the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine was responsible for the downing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. This incident brings the death toll of innocent Americans, including a Harvard graduate aboard that flight, at the hands of the Intifada higher than that of innocent Palestinians, though one must note the over-whelming majority of innocent Palestinians killed in the Intifada are killed by Palestinians following Yassir Arafat's prompting that any Palestinian who "thinks of stopping the Intifada before it achieves its goals, I will give him 10 bullets in the chest." To date over 130 Palestinians who have resisted the Intifada have been brutally murdered by their own brothers. What will it take for people to realize that the Intifada is not a peaceful demonstration like the one in Tiananmen Square, the suppression of which prompted Yassir Arafat to express "extreme gratification"? The Intifada is a violent movement that kills and maims with bombs and stones. When will we stop "romancing the stone"?

This conference, just as the cover story of this month's Perspective, evidences that there are those who are willing to hide the truth to further their personal agenda of discrediting Israel. In light of the history of the Jewish people, it may seem difficult to believe that people lie about Israel, it's 1989: That doesn't happen any more, eh? And certainly not in a place like Wellesley, Massachusetts? Ivan Dominguez '91   Louis Green '91   Harvard Israel Public Affairs Committee'