Letter to the Editor:
It was astonishing to read many factual errors in the two guest columns last month. Here are several corrections.
Gaza Health Ministry’s data has been scientifically confirmed. Israel killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, including 14,000 children, which doesn’t include thousands lost under the rubble. Thousands are also dying due to Israel’s brutal blockade.
That Israel is intentionally killing Palestinian civilians is attested by independent investigations, journalists on the ground and the testimony of the doctors who have returned from Gaza. Just check the coverage in channels like Democracy Now! or Al Jazeera. The facts are so horrendous that this is indeed a genocide, as Israeli holocaust professor Amos Goldberg also agrees.
Though some of the worst stories seem unfounded, Hamas committed atrocities on Oct. 7. This shouldn’t blind us to the fact that the Zionist project predates even Hamas. In Naomi Klein’s words, Zionism “from the start… produced an ugly kind of freedom that saw Palestinian children not as human beings, but as demographic threats,” and “equates Jewish freedom with cluster bombs that kill and maim Palestinian children.”
Our politicians continue to fund this genocide. Perhaps, as Chris Hedges wrote, “university students across the country, facing mass arrests, suspensions, evictions and expulsions are our last, best hope to halt the genocide in Gaza.”
Sincerely,
Dr. Isra Yazicioglu
