Opinion Column

And the controversy continues

Mariam Sobh | Daily Illini Columnist
Published Thursday, January 29, 2004

Last year, in a column titled "Stop turning a blind eye," (Dec. 11, 2003) I wrote a column that contained a quote supposedly said by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in 1956. Sharon was quoted saying he wanted to burn, rape and murder Palestinians. It portrayed him as a murderous monster and has drawn in quite a number of defensive letters. These letters claim the quote is an absolute hoax that surfaced through e-mail a few years ago.

I didn't get the quote from an e-mail but from a friend (not Palestinian) writing a research paper. I looked it up online to make sure it was real, and I found hundreds of Web sites that had this statement. Perhaps, as the saying goes, it was "too good to be true." I should have looked further, but instead I took it as the truth because I didn't find anything to the contrary.

However, once I became aware that there was such a scandal surrounding this quote, I decided to research it as much as possible.

I have contacted Ariel Sharon and the Israeli Defense Forces and am still waiting for their response to the quote. I've also contacted Professor Avi Shlaim at the University of Oxford, who is himself Jewish, Israeli and one of the world's most renowned historians on the history of Israel. He wrote me, "This is the first time I see this quote, and it does not sound genuine to me."

My apologies for the unintentional error on my part.

However, this doesn't erase Sharon's history as a war criminal. He has been responsible for the massacre of many innocent people and has not been held accountable. Unfortunately, some people readily jump to his defense.

According to Robin Miller, author of "Ariel Sharon's Vision: Maximal Killing," on the night of Oct. 14, 1953, in the town of Qibya, Sharon and his infamous Unit 101 "went in for revenge killings by infiltrators whom the Israelis thought might have come from that hamlet. Sharon was chosen to lead the mission."

In Israeli Historian Benny Morris' book, Israel's Border Wars, 1949-1956 (Page 261, note 91), he writes about a United Nations report addressing the same attack. "Bullet-riddled bodies near the doorways and multiple bullet hits on the doors of the demolished houses indicated that the inhabitants had been forced to remain inside until their homes were blown up over them," the document reads.

Morris also says that Commander E.H. Hutchison, a U.S. naval officer serving on the U.N. armistice monitoring commission, investigated the slaughter. "Here and there from between the rocks," he wrote, "you could see a tiny hand or foot protruding." (Morris, p. 261 Note 91)

In an April 14, 2002 article in the Guardian, Avi Shlaim (the scholar I mentioned earlier) says, "The Middle East conflict cannot be resolved while the Israelis are led by a man who sees military force as the only instrument of policy."

This is just one of numerous examples that sheds light on Sharon's brutal history. I am not attacking Israelis or Jews, but it seems that in the United States, people are very defensive of Israeli leadership, whereas even in Israel, people openly debate these issues.

I personally denounce violence on all sides of this conflict, and I hope that someday we can all at least be civil to one another without the use of personal attacks. There is no need for the harassment, spitting in my face, yelling of slurs and sending of threatening letters that I've had to deal with because this is all written down in history.

If you don't believe me, pick up a book.



Mariam Sobh is a graduate student in journalism. Her columns appear Thursdays. She can be reached at opinions@dailyillini.com.