Word: humanity
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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FIRST, the denial. One reader prefaced his reference to daily human rights abuses in the occupied territories with the word "allegedly." Another explicitly disputed the routine nature of such abuses...
...facts speak for themselves. Since the intifada began just over two years ago, almost 600 Palestinians have been killed, about 2000 imprisoned without trial and 58 deported in violation of international law. Divide those figures by the number of days and you see just how routine Israeli human rights abuses really are. Denial is not a good option for the Zealots...
When confronted with undeniable evidence of abuses, Zealots sometimes turn to rationalization. "Human rights violations must be taken in context," read one response. Granted, Israel is a threatened nation. Granted, Jews have endured incredible suffering in the past. Granted, Israel's Arab neighbors are, in general, much less observant of civil liberties than Israel...
...none of that automatically justifies human rights violations. Such abuses must be condemned unequivocally--even when they occur in the Jewish state...
Perhaps most disturbing to me were the letters that attributed sinister motives to my criticism of Israel. One reader informed me that he could not brook criticism from anyone "whose political purpose goes beyond that of Palestinian nationalism and human rights...