I recently read Shawn Dhar’s letter to the editor, “Palestinian peace may be impossible,” (SN 6/24) and I was a little taken aback by the author’s attitude. Granted, one must realize acts against humanity have been committed on both sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, so it might be easy to write off either group as being a people who deserve no sympathy.

But, the interesting thing about the letter was that it quoted a poll in which supposedly the majority of Palestinians were found to support homicide or suicide bombings.

Being as I am, I wonder about the credentials of such a poll, and further, whether that poll included the majority of Palestinians.

Further, I fail to see how quoting a phantom poll will educate the masses about why one does or does not hold sympathy with the Palestinians, let alone, any other group of people.

On the upside, I was glad to see that the letter reminded us that Islam is not pro-violence, although I must admit, it was said with a shade of hesitation.

Naima Rehman
human biology senior