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Destroying university no answer to problems
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More from OpinionDec. 28, Israeli air force missiles destroyed the Islamic University of Gaza. I have visited the university, built with the support of grants from the Ford Foundation and other sources. It was a beautiful place that day, full of young women carrying books, talking in small groups, rushing to class like anywhere else.
Israel bombed it because it said it was a font of radicalism and support for Hamas. Yes, some student groups fervently supported Hamas. There were many student groups, and students spent much time on the Internet, their link to the wider world. At the university, students could major in a wide range of subjects and for a few years have access to the pleasures of higher learning before confronting life in the nearly closed prison that Gaza is today.
In Gaza, malnutrition is widespread and unemployment is nearly universal. Israel does not let Gazans export their produce or manufactured goods. It does not let them out to work, and it does not let them import adequate food and medicine.
The strip of land is fenced in, the airport and seaport are closed, and all gates are closed and have been for years. Even students who win fellowships for advanced study more often than not find themselves thwarted by Israel’s refusal to let them cross out of Gaza. Now there is no more university.
I remember firebrands suggesting in anger that the government bomb UC Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara and UCLA during the 1960s and early 1970s to end student militancy. Even though violent acts were indeed planned in various corners of these universities, today, they are all flourishing. Cooler heads prevailed, not only because we value our institutions of higher learning and the futures of our young people, but because we know that bombing and destroying do not lead to social progress.
A better course of action for Israel would be to let Gazans and others travel in and out of the strip; to study and work in the West Bank, Israel and abroad; and to have the same access to the world enjoyed by the Israelis themselves. That would bring an immediate halt to the violence.
— Nancy Gallagher of Newbury Park chairs the Middle East studies program at UC Santa Barbara.
Posted by nannyfo1 on January 6, 2009 at 9:33 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Good for Isreal. Maybe next they can bomb Berkeley.
Posted by adamantly on January 6, 2009 at 2:43 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Nancy Gallagher is obviously liberal because she does not hold people responsible for their own actions. In her letter she said "some student groups fervently supported Hamas". For God's sake Nance the whole Palestinian population voted Hamas to be their governement. The Palestinians chose a terrorist organization to run their country.
As for her blaming Israel for the malnutrition in Gaza that is such bull. The Palestinians spend millions in support of Hamas and to purchase guns, ammunition, rockets and suicide bombs that they could spend on food, medicine and industry. I might buy her theory if suicide bombers killed themselves so Hamas would feed their families but they do it for the virgins.
Palestinians chose Hamas instead of peace. The quicker Israel quits messing around and just finishes them off the better the whole region will be.
Palestinians had an opportunity to demostrate to the world what they believe in. The results of their election clearly indicates they believe in Hamas and they believe in death and destruction. The chose Hamas all by themselves and they cannot blame Israel, the US or anyone else for the results of their choice.
Posted by sslocal on January 6, 2009 at 2:44 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Nancy has a very narrow biased view. Bombing the school may well have been a bit much but Hamas sends hundreds of rockets into Isreal. Why no complaints about that?
No Nancy, better to ask why don't the Pali's stop Hamas before Isreal kills them all.
Posted by horsespinner on January 6, 2009 at 5 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I remember 9/11. A lot of dancing on the streets of Gaza. Most of the worlds countries do get along. No rockets screaming over Germany from France. Bomb Berkley? No just put it in the middle of Oakland, talk about a war zone. Gaza has a sea coast and a boarder with Egypt, so it cannot be all Israel's doing
Posted by Oceans11 on January 6, 2009 at 6:03 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Nancy, Nancy, Nancy...Hamas runs Gaza. Hamas is their government. Hamas "urged" the Palestinians to vote for a Hamas-run government. Hamas embedded itself into Gaza because the terroristic attitude is one of which their goals are to win a "state" of their own...albeit a "country"; so there is Hamas, in Gaza, Nancy. Hamas acquired weapons and missiles and other military goods direct from Syria and Iran, who also support Hezbollah (Lebanon) and other terrorist organizations worldwide. Hamas is the group, Nancy who has fired rockets at Israel from within school sites, college sites, home sites and groups of Palestinian citizens, even those living in refugee centers, so they can die along with hundreds of other innocents in Israeli raids, only to have blame put on Israel. Jihad is the goal and whether the terrorists die or the innocents die, all are martyr's. Hamas is the one who keeps breaking peace accords and Hamas is the one who always "fires first" into Israel indiscriminately. Who cares where Israel has to go to eliminate these rocket establishments in order to root out and destroy these sites and equipment and all who man them and the ways and means to transport them? This includes colleges and universities and mosques, Nancy. Structures can be rebuilt, Nancy, and human lives, hopefully the Hamas militants' lives cannot be replaced; and then again, neither can the innocents lives be. Leaflets were dropped on all Gaza cities prior to the aerial attacks by the planeloads, and the Palestinians knew what was coming. Hamas "urged" the population not to move or else they would shoot them...so much about a "rock and a hard place", Nancy. So, let's not worry too much about the colleges and universities you visited before. They are inanimate structures without a heart or a soul. I hope if Hamas terrorists were in them, preaching their despicable rhetoric to anyone who will be stupid enough to listen to it, so be it.
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