Viewpoint

U.S. gives billions to Israel, threatens Palestine with cuts

We here at the University are in a quagmire. Do we face injustice only when it is popular to do so, or do we face it no matter mask it decides to wear? I am proud to be a Michigan student. The two years I spent away from Ann Arbor in between my undergraduate and graduate studies made me crave to return so that I could re-enter the world of activism and feel, once again, like I was doing something.

I am a Palestinian. I am proud of that too. Lately, however, I feel the injustice against my people stronger than ever. I am a member of many campus organizations and have taken it upon myself to grasp a leadership role in many of the recent rallies, protests and vigils held to defend the rights of the Palestinian people, remember the victims and condemn the aggression of the Israeli government and military.

Recently, however, I have felt the backlash of my activism. Pro-Jewish lobbies and groups on campus have resorted to no less tactics than declaring their fear of violent actions against them by our groups, calling our groups "terrorist," and doing everything they can to hide the injustice. Unfortunately, not many students on campus are sufficiently educated about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that affects over 8,000 students on this campus. I do not want to give political or historical analysis. I want to provide facts, and you can make your own conclusions.

Here is a truth that most don't know. Israel receives about $5 billion in U.S. aid every year. To break it down, Israel receives $1.2 billion in economic aid, $1.8 billion in military aid and close to $2 billion in extra perks from the Pentagon's budget. In fact, every time Israel returns more lands to Arabs, it asks for more money from the U.S. In the recent failed peace talks with Syria, Israel demanded a package of more than $17 billion to pull out of illegally occupied lands in the Golan Heights. Just facts.

Israel, a nation with a population less than New York City or Hong Kong, is the recipient of the most American foreign aid, receiving more than one-third of America's annual bilateral foreign aid. Pretty amazing. Every other country that receives foreign aid from America are developing countries that either have suffered a recent earthly disaster, are part of international alliances with the U.S. or allow the U.S. to place military bases on their lands.

Israel falls into none of these categories. In fact, Israel has a per capita gross national product of $17,000, putting it on par with a country like Ireland. Other than Israel, no country with a comparable GNP receives American foreign aid. From 1949-1997, Israel received about $80 billion in U.S. money, while the combined countries of sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean received just under $65 billion. It is a staggering difference when you consider that while there are 6.1 million people living in a industrialized economy in Israel, there are more than 1.2 billion people living in the third world countries I just mentioned.

When you add in Pentagon perks, as of October 1999, Israel had received over $90 billion in American aid. $90 billion. When this is all divvied up, each Israeli family of five receives $75,000 of American taxpayer money. That number is in fact even higher since Arab citizens of Israel, who number 18 percent, are deprived government assistance. I wonder how many American families of five have ever received $75,000 from their own government.

America has never tied its huge aid packages to Israel with performance at the peace table, so Israeli intransigence in negotiating goes unchecked. Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority, who last year received $75 million in aid compared to Israel's $4.1 billion (a more than fifty-fold difference), is threatened with cuts in aid every time Palestinian leaders do not cooperate with American policy makers. Is that honest brokerage in negotiating?

What Israel does with American taxpayer money may be subject to political debate, so I will not get into that now. My goal is to provide facts. Just facts.

- This viewpoint was written by

Rackham student Amer Zahr.