Meeting violence with violence

BOGDAN (THEO) MYNKA | Evergreen columnist

November 16, 2015

Conflict between Israel and Palestine grows as civilians continue to die in day-to-day incidents in Israel.It is no secret that Israel and Palestine have been in conflict for a while. One could even make the argument that the two nations have been quarrelling since biblical times. Be it religious views or land entitlement, the two nations have not found common ground in many arguments, and these arguments have caused acts of war and often almost war itself.Recently, the conflict has moved to a more personal level. Whereas before the governments would dispute issues and militias would take action, now civilians have taken this so-called ‘responsibility’ upon themselves, and some have created serious incidents, which take the whole issue to another level.Although conflict may be inevitable, it is no excuse for civilians to take action, and, more importantly, uninterrupted action.On Nov. 8, a Palestinian driver was shot dead by Israeli forces after ramming his car into a bus stop in the West Bank, injuring four people. In another incident, an Israeli settler attacked a rabbi peace activist who was volunteering to protect Palestinian farmers during the ongoing olive harvest season.Rabbi Asherman was assaulted after he confronted the settlers, who were “stealing olives and burning groves that belong to local villagers. After he confronted the settlers, one of them assaulted him with stones and a knife,” according to an article by Al Jazeera.The rabbi was not killed, but it is speculated that if he were not Jewish, the consequences could have been worse.The biggest problem in this conflict is the one-sidedness of the issue. Israel is receiving vast support from the United States and other western countries, whereas Palestine has only a handful of organizations striving to raise aid, awareness and support for the Palestinians.On a more general scale, the Israeli forces have “killed at least 77 Palestinians, including 46 who Israel says were carrying out or about to carry out attacks with knives, guns or cars,” according to an Al Jazeera article.On Nov. 9, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with President Barack Obama in Washington. They discussed possible progress with the Palestinians and how to stabilize the situation.The violence began when a number of Jewish settlers, backed up by Israeli security, stormed the Al-Aqsa mosque compound. The Israelites claim that, biblically, this was the territory of two destroyed Jewish temples.Whatever the reason behind the conflict may be, it is the responsibility of the governments to find a way – hopefully a peaceful one – to end the violence.So far, violence has been met with violence, and skunk gas and hundreds of Israeli riot police have not done much to solve the situation.Another grave problem is the light in which the U.S. views this conflict.Toward the end of October, a new bill was introduced to Congress, backed by 50 members “expressing solidarity with the people of Israel in the wake of recent terrorist attacks and condemning the Palestinian Authority for inciting an atmosphere of violence.”Additionally, Hillary Clinton composed an opinion piece in which she condemned the violence going on. However, she only listed Israeli casualties and victims, completely ignoring the hundreds of Palestinians who suffer from the conflict each day.“Young Palestinians do not go out to murder Jews because they are Jews, but because we are their occupiers, their torturers, their jailers, the thieves of their land and water, their exilers, the demolishers of their homes, the blockers of their horizon,” said Amira Haaz, correspondent of the occupied territories.This is not to say Palestine has no fault in this. It is evident there are two sides to a conflict, and obviously much of the blame lies on Palestine’s shoulders. The action that some Palestinian terrorist organizations have taken can in no way be justified, but their actions cannot define an entire nation.Bogdan (Theo) Mynka is a freshman studying music from Kharkiv, Ukraine. He can be contacted at 335-2290 or by [email protected] The opinions expressed in this column are not necessarily those of the staff of The Daily Evergreen or those of the Office of Student Media.