Victim or aggressor

Published: 25 June, 2010

• TWENTY-four years ago I was still living in Israel and I didn’t notice that we Israelis were “under attack from Arabs and Palestinians for 24 years” (Turning the flotilla tide, June 18).

But Canonbury Square’s George Orwell would have probably recognised this euphemism, of the aggressor being dubbed the victim.

A snapshot of 24 years ago would reveal Israel in 1986: occupying the south of Lebanon, the Golan Heights, the West Bank with East Jerusalem, and Gaza.

Israel operated numerous torture centres to suppress any resistance to its brutal occupations.

In Lebanon, electric shocks were commonly used, such as against a 70-year-old woman who was taken as a hostage by the Israeli forces.

She was then held in Jalameh (Kishon) prison, near Haifa, without anyone being informed.

She was left to rot without any legal process or visits.

I was living in Tel Aviv when, through Palestinian prisoners, we found out about this isolated, kidnapped Lebanese woman.

Our lawyer got her released.

The same denials and distortions are now being applied against the flotilla and the illegal Israeli siege of Gaza.

In the tradition of Orwell’s high regard for truth and justice – as he said on the BBC, “What most people appear to demand is... more truthful news” – the Tribune’s recent articles on the Islingtonians on the flotilla are examples of highly commendable journalism that aims to expose the truth and not conceal it.

YAEL KAHN
Chair, Islington Friends of Yibna