UNMIA

When this article was published, this letter had not been published by the Lobo. However, it was included in the printed Lobo on Friday, November 16. We would like to think that our complaints had an effect and caused the Lobo to publish an opposing view at last, but maybe it was just a coincidence, and maybe the Lobo was going to publish it all along.

November 13, 2007

Editor,
You published two letters from the “Middle East Peace and Justice Alliance” in the Nov. 13 “Daily Lobo.” Lori Rudolph decries that the Palestinians are “overlooked … and falsely represented as terrorists by our media.” Katherine Hughes-Fraitekh provides the usual weary indictments of Israel including a new one: the inability of Christian Palestinians to access their holy places in Jerusalem.

Rudolph has it wrong. The Palestinians have been afforded an extremely favorable press. The BBC and CNN International, including Christiane Amanpour, slavishly detail alleged Israeli abuses while barely mentioning Palestinian irredentist hatred, anti-Jewish indoctrination of children, and homicide bombing of civilians. The “New York Times” routinely provides pro-Palestinian stories and photos.

Answering Hughes-Fraitekh I point out that the Palestinians and other Arabs have received cruel treatment not from Israel but from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, …

Lynn Provencio’s reply:

Interestingly, Ms. Gossage mainly takes issue with my characterization of the Arab speakers, that I criticized their comments and personal stories as being politically motivated rather than being stories of alternative peace efforts. She says I don’t show proper sympathy for their afflictions. This is especially true in the case of Ms. Wejdan. Ms. Gossage says I twisted facts to show them in a bad light. However, she didn’t say what facts were twisted or what was the correct interpretation, except in the case of Ms. Wejdan’s return trip to Gaza from the US.

As for the reasons behind Ms. Wejdan’s not being allowed back into Israel the first try, when she returned from the US, we are speculating where we have no facts. While I made the comment about associations rather off-handedly, it makes sense. Ms. Wejdan was a student sponsored by a prestigious American scholarship program, and her PA papers were good enough for her to go into Israel from Gaza and pass through customs at Ben Gurion and then Kennedy Airport on her way to the US. Her sponsors have extensive experience in bringing foreign students to the US to study, including Palestinians. Why did she …

Editor’s note: This was added as a comment to the article, but due to the layout of the website and the length of both posts, we decided to post this as an article so that the public could find it and follow the discussion more easily.

From Mary E. Gossage:

Reading Lynn Provencio’s comments I was honestly offended by the way in which she tried to twist what was said by the two Palestinian women into something that was not said. Her “truth twisting” also lead her to create inaccurate “profiles” of the two Palestinian women. Its anyone’s guess why Ms. Provencio would want to trash the two Palestinian women in the way she did.

The comment about Wejdan’s experiences when returning home from graduate school in the U.S. is particularly offensive. Ms. Provencio says of the duress which Wejdan was under for seven day while trying to return home (after earning her Master’s degree in the U.S., via a prestigious scholarship - a fact which Ms. Provencio did NOT share in her comment): “[it] took seven days because she was not allowed back into Israel. She claims it was because of not having papers, which was probably part of the problem. It …

Note: This article is a much expanded version of the first comment on this subject that the UNM Daily Lobo refused to print.

by Lynn Provencio - On Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2007 I went over to Dane Smith Hall at UNM in Albuquerque to hear the presentation of “Three Jerusalem Women Speak”, which was billed as being alternative voices speaking for peace and non-violent solutions to the Israeli-Arab conflict. Actually none of the women was from Jerusalem, but maybe they just didn’t want to reprint their pamphlets.

The “Women Speak” tour is a production of “Partners for Peace“, and is sponsored by UNM (International Studies Institute, Religious Studies, Womens Resource Center, and Women Studies) and the Middle East Peace and Justice Alliance (MEPJA), (which is affiliated with the Albuquerque Peace and Justice Center and the International Solidarity Movement, a part of the International Communist Party).

The guest speakers were:

• Wejdan Jaber: A Muslim Palestinian, Ms. Jaber was awarded a USAID “Clinton Scholarship,” in 2000 and a Master’s in Public Administration and International Management from the Monterey Institute for International Studies, Monterey, California, in 2002. Born in …