Two sides to a story

Legend Bob Marley said it best in his 1973 hit "Get Up, Stand Up," in the line "…you can fool some people sometimes but you can't fool all the people all the time…" While Marley wasn't talking about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, propaganda in America continues to filter our view there. The Palestinian struggle has been missing in mainstream media for decades, resulting in a one-sided view of the conflict.\nIsrael claims it must defend itself against the Palestinians, whose sole ambitions, it says, are for the destruction of Israel. This is a racist attempt at covering up the injustices of life under occupation. To add insult to injury, Israel is destroying Palestine and using this as a justification to kill. But not all Israelis buy into this argument. More than 400 Israeli army reservists have refused to fight in the occupied territories. They recognize Israel's presence there has nothing to do with the defense of Israel itself.\nIsrael has waged a war on a civilian population and has taken land it does not rightfully own. How could Israel not expect resistance? Injustice breeds terrorism. It is an unfortunate, but inevitable reaction to the suffocation of an entire people. Indeed, Palestinian lives and Israeli lives amount to the same thing: They are both human being; religion and national origin are of no importance. Both deserve to live in peace, free \nof terror.\nAriel Sharon, prime minister of Israel, is currently being charged for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, in a high court in Belgium. The charges stem from Sharon's responsibility over the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camp massacres of 1982. One to two thousand Palestinian and Lebanese civilians were murdered there.\nCurrently in the Occupied Territories, Sharon is committing similar atrocities. Hundreds of innocent civilians are being killed simply because they are Palestinian. It stems from Israel's use of collective punishment, which means that for every innocent Israeli death, 10 innocent Palestinians will die in retribution.\nIsrael's recent incursion to Palestinian-controlled land has caused massive hardship. Medical aid has been completely cut off. Dead bodies rot in the streets. The injured bleed to death. Following a media blackout, journalists have been allowed access to camps like Jenin. Eyewitnesses give gruesome accounts of massacres of innocent people and the mass graves that Israel is hiding the bodies in. "Amid the ruins of Jenin, the grisly evidence of a war crime," Phil Reeves told The Independent April 16.\nNews programs and government officials have accused Yasser Arafat of not doing enough to curtail the violence. Interestingly enough, when Palestinians do obey cease fires, it is Israel that breaches the peace and continues its systematic violence against the Palestinian people. From Dec. 13 to Jan. 9, Arafat called for a cease-fire, which was observed by all Palestinian factions. There were zero Israelis killed that time. For 28 days more than 30 Palestinians were killed and more than 100 Palestinian homes were demolished. Why, then, wasn't Sharon called on to stop the violence?\nApril 22, in Woodburn Hall 100 at 7 p.m., media analyst Ali Abunimah will hold a discussion and a lengthy question-and-answer session on the conflict. It is an opportunity to listen to the facts and struggles that are so conveniently left out of mainstream news.\nOnly when the media starts telling the full truth can these stereotypes be eradicated and the true face of \npeace emerge.