To the editor:

The recent uproar over the US decision to abstain on a UN vote to condemn Israeli settlements in the occupied territories is disconcerting to say the least. As early as the Lyndon Johnson administration there was concern that Israel was not interested in a just peace and was engaged in expansionist policies.

My parents lived in East Jerusalem in 1966. When the Israelis invaded in 1967, an American living there wrote to them about widespread Israeli looting of Palestinian homes and businesses. Palestinian civilians were rounded up off the streets of Jerusalem at gunpoint into trucks. When the trucks were full, they were driven to the Allenby bridge and the individuals deported across the Jordan river.

After things had settled down, a Palestinian my family knew walked over to his house in West Jerusalem he hadn’t seen since 1948, and out of curiosity knocked on the door. A lady from Poland answered and graciously invited him in for a cup of tea. She invited him to sit on his furniture he hadn’t seen for 19 years, and she brought the tea in a silver tea service that had been a wedding gift to him and his wife. As he was leaving, he noticed a picture of his ancestors on the wall and asked if he could have it. Oh no, the lady replied, explaining that she had paid the Israeli government for the house and all of the contents.

No stories like this appeared in the American media, which gushed over the glorious Israeli victory and their “reunification” of Jerusalem. There was never any indication of the sense of injustice felt by Arabs, many of whom were losing their property to the Israelis for the second time. The fact that this is the one issue that unites both sides of the congressional aisle is extremely unfortunate.

David Mendenhall

Pomona, NY