Madison-Rafah Journal

The Capital Times :: EDITORIAL :: 11A
Saturday, November 19, 2005
Kathy Walsh, Madison

DEAR EDITOR: IN YOUR ARTICLE ON THE EFFORT GET THE UW TO DROP ITS INVESTMENTS IN COMPANIES SUPPLYING WAR MATERIALS TO ISRAEL, PROFESSOR KEN GOLDSTEIN IS QUOTED AS SAYING, "WHEN A PALESTINIAN WOMAN LOVES HER CHILD, AND DOES NOT ENCOURAGE 14-, 15-, AND 16-YEAR-OLDS TO STRAP BOMBS ONTO THEIR BODY AND BLOW UP ISRAELI 3-, 4- AND 5-YEAR-OLDS AT A PIZZERIA, THEN WE'LL HAVE A TWO-STATE SOLUTION.

"I was in Rafah (a city in the Gaza strip) when a 10-year-old girl was killed by Israeli sniper fire while standing in line outside her school. I saw the mother. She was beyond herself in grief. Some may consider her child a martyr, but her mother was NOT celebrating her martyrdom, but grieving her death, as I know Jewish mothers and Christian mothers and even atheist mothers like myself would do. And I don't think it was because her daughter was killed before she had a chance to be a bomb. The child's name was Norhan, or "light" in Arabic. She was a light extinguished for no reason.

Statistics on who is killing whom can be found at Remember These Children, B'Tselem, or even the Israeli Defense Force Web sites. As of Nov. 9, 123 Israeli children have been killed by Palestinians since September 2000. In this same time period, Israelis have killed 704 Palestinian children.

Two Palestinian children have been shot to death by Israeli soldiers since Nov. 1 — Mohammad Hamdi Abu Salha, 15, of Nablus, and Ahmed Ismail Khatib, 12, of Jenin. Ahmed's father donated his organs to several Israeli children and one Israeli woman. That is just one example of the "hatred" that Palestinians teach their children.

The Capital Times :: FRONT :: 3A
Friday, November 11, 2005
By Aaron Nathans, The Capital Times

Protesters packed a hearing Thursday on the University of Wisconsin's investment portfolio, encouraging the Board of Regents to divest from Israel.

Many held Palestinian flags, as speaker after speaker called for the university to divest from companies that do business with the Israeli military. They argued, for example, that Caterpillar makes bulldozers that are used to knock down houses of families of suspected Palestinian terrorists. And Lockheed Martin supplies the Israeli Air Force.

"As a mother, my heart goes out to the mothers of Palestine," said Rae Vogeler, the Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate. She brought along her 8-year-old son. "Do we want to be investing in machines that kill?"

But local supporters of Israel said the effort had nothing to do with changing its military, and was instead part of a sustained campaign on American campuses to delegitimize the Jewish state.

The UW Board of Regents' Business and Finance Committee held its annual forum on trust funds at Grainger Hall, with committee members, as usual, sitting quietly at a table in front while members of the public said their piece. The event, usually a tepid and sparsely attended affair, is designed to allow people to comment on the university's investment choices. About 70 attended on Thursday.

(Read on …)