Sir, – I was not surprised but am deeply grateful to the esteemed Human Rights organisation Amnesty International for their devastating report "Israel's apartheid against Palestinians: Cruel system of domination and crime against humanity" ("Amnesty accuses Israel of subjecting Palestinians to 'apartheid'", World, February 1st).
The report “has concluded that Israel has perpetrated the international wrong of apartheid” . The reason I’m not surprised is I’ve personally seen that apartheid in action, while planting olive trees with the YMCA and Palestinian farmers, under the threat of armed settler violence in the West Bank.
I’ve seen the queues at checkpoints, the separate roads and licence plates, the lack of water for Palestinian families alongside settler sprinklers, the deprived schools and hospitals.
In the last weeks, I’ve watched the videos as elderly Palestinian women wept as their homes were demolished in East Jerusalem.
The 211-page forensic Amnesty report notes that “almost all of Israel’s civilian administration and military authorities, as well as governmental and quasi-governmental institutions, are involved in the enforcement of the system of apartheid against Palestinians across Israel and the OPT (Occupied Palestinian Territory) and against Palestinian refugees outside the territory.” It is not a question of occasional bad behaviour by Israeli forces. The violence and discrimination are systemic.
It is time to move on from words. The international community has a responsibility to act. I echo Amnesty’s call for an end to arming the Israeli state, to institute an embargo on Israeli settlement products, and for the UN to reconstitute its special committee against apartheid.
The egregious attacks on the people and families of Palestine must be brought to an end.
Ireland must play its part. – Yours, etc,
BETTY PURCELL,
Dublin 6W.