With the recent upsurge in violence in Iraq, it is unfortunate that one of the most egregious violators of human rights has once again slipped below the radar.

Every day I ask myself, how could the survivors of the Nazi genocide go on to become the perpetrators of the brutal and vicious holocaust against the Palestinians? Is there no limit to the inhumanity of man? How ungrateful can he be to his Maker? And are we not all children of the one God of Abraham?

Less than three months ago, Hafiz Abdel Aziz Rantisi, devout Muslim and father of six, was inhumanely slaughtered by the state of Israel, just weeks after the similar butchering of the paralyzed Sheikh Yassin, under the command of Gen. Ariel Sharon, who will one day have to account for his war crimes in 1982 in Lebanon and for the terror he has inflicted upon a weak and crippled nation, making young children into orphans and women into widows.

The world nobly spoke out against this horrible crime, but disturbingly, America, founded as the Biblical "city on the hill," was silent. How long must we endure this wicked reign of terror before we realize the moral bankruptcy of the modern Zionist state?

In these times of crisis, there is a need for unity among Muslims, Christians and Jews; as vanguards of the Abrahamic tradition, we must continually strive to effect justice and peace throughout the world, be it in Palestine, Iraq or the United States.

In order for the cycle of violence in the Middle East to end, the illegal Israeli occupation must end.

Until then, we must realize that the Palestinian struggle is a human struggle of a people resisting the shackles of bondage and striving to partake in the same basic freedom and liberty that is endowed by the Almighty and that we so cherish.

Until then, we must support the Palestinians in their quest for independence and their aspirations for statehood.

Until then, we must strain our ears to hear the Palestinian cry for freedom emanating from the Holy Land, and we must not let it be drowned out by the Israeli Apaches and M-16s.

Until then, we are all Palestinians.