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With No Hope, Violence Will Continue
by James Glaser December 30, 3008 About ten or twelve years ago I heard a talk given by a Palestinian in Minneapolis at the university. This man was close to my age, and he told us that he was born in a refuge camp. Growing up he heard the story about the home his family lost to the Zionists in Israel. He then told us about his son and his new grandson. Three generations growing up in a refuge camp. The man went on to explain that in a refuge camp you have no hope. No hope to own land. No hope to own a house. No hope to even own a car, and as he said, worst of all, no hope for a future. He talked about the hope his mother and father had of getting their home back, and how they believed justice would prevail. He said that he tried to have some of the same hope that his parents had, but as the years went on, all hope faded. He watched as his son became more and more radical, and when that son turned to violence against Israel, this man had nothing he could argue with to stop him. Who knows, by this time that new grandson might be fighting for Hamas. For some reason that I fail to understand, Israel believes that it can continue to treat Palestinians like animals. They have taken their land and have kept them in refuge camps for over 50 years, and somehow they think the Palestinians will just go away. Palestinians have no place to go but Palestine, and as their population continues to grow larger than Israel's population, it is only a matter of time before they will win out. Today Israel hates the Palestinians, and Palestinians hate Israelis. Some day the Palestinians are going to treat the Israelis they way they have been treated. Right now, Israel is beating Palestine like you beat a dog, but a dog will only cower for so long, and then it will take every blow you can deliver for a chance to bite you. The people of Palestine have no hope, and they have nothing to lose, but they for sure have the desire to bite back. It will happen, and it is going to be just awful. |
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