Letter to the editor: ‘Ugly war’ against Palestinians began in 1948

Regarding the letter “Thoughts on two recent letters” (Dec. 11, TribLive): The author claims that two Dec. 3 letter-writers distort history about the Gaza war by decrying Israel’s genocide of Palestinian women and children. (To date up to 70% of over 71,000 total deaths.) He further claims the letter-writers are ignorant of history because Hamas and the Palestinians “began this ugly war.”

Really? An unbiased fact check of history is absolutely clear. The ugly war against Palestinian Arabs actually began in 1948 when over 15,000 Palestinians were killed and over 750,000 were driven from their homes in the formation of the state of Israel by a minority of European Jewish colonists after World War II. The Middle East Palestinians had nothing to do with the Holocaust, but the Jewish colonists based their land grab on a farfetched real estate claim that their ancient religious ancestors owned the land 2,000 years ago.

I wonder if the author would peacefully abandon his Western Pennsylvania home if an indigenous Shawnee or Iroquois demanded he move out.

Gerald Schiller

Penn Hills