Readers React: Israeli responsibility for Palestinian misery

To the editor: Tamar Sternthal from the pro-Israel media watchdog CAMERA says that Israel is not responsible for the suffering of the Palestinians at the Yarmouk refugee camp in Syria or for any Palestinian suffering. (“Don’t blame Israel for Palestinian misery at Yarmouk,” Readers React, April 21)

In fact, Israel is directly to blame for the suffering of Palestinians in their diaspora.

By forcing Palestinians off their land, either by acts of terrorism (the Deir Yassin massacre in 1948 was the direct cause of them fleeing the war zone) or by actually evicting them at gunpoint and then not allowing them to return to their homes at the end of the war, Israel is absolutely the cause of what has happened to them.

Civilians are expected to flee a war zone; if they don’t, we think they’re idiots. Not allowing them to return to their homes is not only a violation of international law, it is also an act of profound immorality and cruelty.

Blain Brown, Alhambra

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