University of Virginia Library

Letters To The Editor

Billy Graham Film 'Distortion Of Religion'

We the Palestinians in this
university, violently object to the
showing of Billy Graham's film "his
land" on campus.

Not only does the film distort
the truth in the name of religion, it
distorts religion itself for the sake
of politics. Both Christianity and
Judaism are subjected to a political
interpretation in specifically Zionist
terms.

The whole historical reality of
Palestine is completely ignored,
except in a few condescending
remarks about the "few Arabs"
who happened to be living there.

As Palestinians, we do not
conjecture, we know about the
rights of the inhabitants of
Palestine and the grave injustices
done to them which are here
defended in the name of religion.
We challenge the whole political
ideology of the film, and, as
Christians too, we refuse to accept
the so-called "Christian" guise of
such propaganda. (After all, it is no
secret that Billy Graham's son
fought in the Israeli army in the
1967 war.)

Furthermore, we feel that such
political propaganda enhances the
misconceptions and prejudices
perpetuated by Zionists about the
Arabs and Palestinians. If Billy
Graham believes that his "God" is
on the Israeli side, we firmly believe
that God is not some vague political
concept which was miraculously
translated into phantom bombers
and napalm.

The Palestinian Revolution aims
at establishing a free, progressive,
democratic state in Palestine for
Jews, Moslems, and Christians alike.
This is the kind of religious
freedom that we support-not Billy
Graham's exclusively Jewish state.
It is amazing to see how Golda Meir
(from Milwaukee), Abba Eban
(from South Africa), and Billy
Graham (an American evangelist)
feel free to determine the fate of
our land and consider us the
outsiders.

Our Palestinian heritage is an
undeniable fact which cannot be
brushed aside-either for the sake of
Billy Graham's "religion" or
Richard Nixon's "politics".

Alderman

I am writing in complete
support of your editorial on library
conditions. The alarming
inadequacies of Alderman Library
were strikingly apparent during
final exam period when the library
facilities were most essential. The
only decent places for study were
the overcrowded and poorly-lighted
reference and reserve book rooms,
which are becoming grossly
inadequate as enrollment continues
to increase at frightening paces.

It is no exaggeration to say that
the standards of academic life are in
great danger if the Administration
fails to recognize and come to grips
with the pathetic plight of
Alderman Library.

Tragic Display

I wonder if the people who put
up the display in Alderman Library,
as a part of Palestine Week,
understand how truly tragic that
display is? And one wonders
whether passers-by have done no
more than glance at it, and accept
or reject it as their political feelings
dictate?

The display shows the painful
life of Palestine refugees and calls
for the alleviation of their misery.
It enforces this call by quoting
sources from Al Fatch to Martin
Buber, the use of Buber suggesting
that the makers of the display are
not anti-Semitic. But what, I think,
should make all of us as unhappy
with the display as we are with the
plight of refugees, is the display's
strong implication that a solution
of the Palestine question must
involve the most radical of all
human activity: killing people.

The display inherently supports
the terrorism and warfare of certain
Arab military groups. It supports
the idea that the future of the two
million Jews of Israel must be
decided through the military
conquest of Israel by an Arab army
of fighters for freedom. It is
murderously ironic that the same
display that calls for the victory of
the Al Fatch militarists disclaims
any desire to "push Israel into the
sea" — or even to decide Israel's fate
by other than democratic means.

One may understand, perhaps
this strange disclaimer by the
possibility that, to these people,
killing for a political ideal is not
killing. They quote Charles de
Gaulle for proof.

The truth of the matter is that a
busload of Israeli schoolchildren
blown up by terrorist bombs, or a
farmer shot down as he works his
field, is no more attractive than the
homelessness of an Arab boy. If we
make ourselves as ruthless as our
worst enemies, we will become as
detestable as they.

And the new society that will
rise from blood and ashes will be
built, after all, out of blood and
ashes. No one should deny, for the
sake of a political idea, the stink of
human truth.

Stephen Margulies
Grad. 3

—Ed.)

Vulgar Signs

After viewing the photo of the
Virginia students and their sign,
carried in your issue of Feb. 4, it is
very easy to understand why the
Gamecocks would want to (and
did) blow the Virginia team out of
Columbia. I understand other signs
were equally as vulgar and as
always, result negatively for the
home team when it becomes time
for them to play the role of visiting
team.

This juvenile display of signs (no
sign or poster of any kind is
allowed in the Carolina Coliseum)
by the Virginia students was bound
to be remembered by the South
Carolina team, and set aside for
later reckoning which was to be
soon coming.

The price for this folly was paid
for in Columbia, but not by the
guilty ones, who were the students,
but by a fine Virginia team that was
all but humiliated by a fixed up
team that might have beaten them
by fifty points had not Coach
McGuire called off his horses when
the game got out of reach. The
Virginia team is a good one,
certainly much better than their
performances in South Carolina
would indicate, and I am sure you
will agree deserves a better fate
than one that forces them to face
teams that are fired up by childish
acts of Virginia students.

The signs may turn the student
ego on but the negative re-action is
not worth the price the Virginia
team has had to pay. I have been
following sports in Virginia for over
forty years, as I am a native of the
Old Dominion and I would like to
say that this edition of the Virginia
team is capable of going all the way
in the A.C.C.

If South Carolina falls in the
tournament, it is my sincerest hope
and desire that Virginia will pick up
the ball and end that long "big
four" tobacco road domination of
A.C.C. basketball.