In response to Omar Tesdell’s the Jan. 16 column, “Israelis Using Palestinians Against Themselves,” I would like to point out several inaccuracies in the article.

It is entirely incorrect to call Israel’s Arab citizens “Israel’s Palestinian Citizens.” These people are citizens of the state of Israel, not Palestine. Currently, there is no state in existence called Palestine, and there never was in history a sovereign state called Palestine.

The column claims that Israel uses the labor of the “subjugated.” The article also equates the treatment of Israel’s Arab citizens to South Africa’s apartheid system.

Under the apartheid system, black Africans were denied their civil rights as well as economic and political opportunities and benefits simply because of their race. This is hardly the case as Israel’s Arab citizenry is hardly a “subjugated people.” The political rights of Israel’s Arab citizens are fully equal to those of Israel’s Jewish citizens.

In fact, Arabic is one of Israel’s official languages. Arab citizens enjoy one of the highest economic standards of living in the region. One very sobering fact is that Israel’s Arabs enjoy more political and economic freedoms than in any Arab state in the region.

Finally, the column alleges that “disenfranchisement” of the Palestinians is to blame for the violence perpetrated against Israelis by Arab terrorists. This claim is outright false and completely ignores the historical realities of the region.

In fact, terrorist attacks were perpetrated against Israel from the moment of its inception, before the West Bank and Gaza were ever under Israeli jurisdiction.

Even the Palestinian Liberation Organization terror organization was formed in 1964, three years before the West Bank and the Gaza Strip came under Israeli control.

Did they form to fight for the “liberation” of the territories they would lose three years later?

Even before the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, the massacres and atrocities perpetrated against the Jewish inhabitants of the region were many and frequent.

I agree people should ask presidential candidates to campaign for the human rights of the Palestinian people. But I also find it just as important to ask to campaign for the same basic human rights for Israelis.

To omit Israeli people from the same request as the column has done is to directly imply they are somehow undeserving of these same basic human rights, and to do so is morally repugnant and racist.

Vlad Pogre

Sophomore

Genetics