A chara, – The Israeli ambassador to Ireland (Letters, December 18th) argues that criticising the state of Israel is a form of "modern anti-Semitism".
The opinion piece she is responding to was written by two members of the Jewish community in Ireland who say they are shocked by the price ordinary Palestinians are made to pay to enable Israel to exist as a Jewish state ("Anti-Semitism must not be elevated over other racism", Opinion & Analysis, December 16th).
I am pretty sure that the authors of the piece, Sue Pentel and Jacob Woolf, have no intention of holding Israel to a moral code which is unexpected of any other nation.
However, at a time when a former Israeli army general decides which members of Gaza’s tiny Christian community can travel to spend Christmas in Bethlehem, they surely have a right to question why Israeli state policies have such a devastating impact on the lives of Palestinians.
The 75km journey from Gaza to Bethlehem should be relatively easy with modern transportation, instead whether they can travel or not is decided by the commander of a brigade which has been linked to a massacre in Gaza in July 2014.
People in Gaza have been mostly living under a blockade since 2007.
The ambassador’s own letter highlights how dangerous it would be for freedom of speech advocates if Ireland adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism.
Jewish Voice for Just Peace Ireland was set up to highlight that anti-Semitism is just as abhorrent as any other form of racism, but also to show that not all Jewish people support the illegal occupation of Palestine.
Were Ireland to adopt the IHRA definition, the two Jewish writers could be accused of anti-Semitism, when all they are seeking is equality and justice for the people of Palestine. – Is mise,
CIARÁN TIERNEY,
Rahoon,
Galway.
Sir, – David Abrahamson’s assertion that the aim of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) is the elimination of the State of Israel is incorrect (Letters, December 18th). The purpose of the movement is to hold Israel to account for its contemptuous treatment of the people of Palestine: the house demolitions, the unlawful killings and, among other things, the ongoing installation of settlements – illegal under the Fourth Geneva Convention. Supporters of Israel never seem to acknowledge that such injustices perpetrated by the Israeli state have become “the reality on the ground” for Palestinians.
Mr Abrahamson misinterprets Omar Barghouti’s advocacy of a single state as a call for the destruction of Israel. Mr Barghouti’s aspiration is for a single state in which Palestinians and Israelis could live side by side, in peace and harmony. – Yours, etc,
DAVID MURPHY,
Dublin 14.
Sir, – Israeli ambassador Lironne Bar Sadeh and David M Abrahamson (Letters,December 18th) refuse to acknowledge Israel’s serious human rights and equality issues infringements, despite two significant reports published this year by Human Rights Watch and B’Tselem detailing Israeli human rights abuses.
According to Human Rights Watch, Palestinians in the Gaza open-air prison, the West Bank and inside Israel are condemned to life without human rights “solely because they are Palestinian and not Jewish.”
Despite Ms Bar Sadeh’s assertion that minorities in Israel enjoy unprecedented freedom, both reports demonstrate that Israel is not a liberal democracy but an apartheid state that curtails and denies the Palestinians’ rights to dignity and freedom. The detention of over 500 Palestinian children by Israel’s military courts each year, state-assisted settler violence, and the dignity denied Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah protesting against imminent eviction from their homes, are just three illustrations.
We are told Israel must be defended because of Jewish history. However, it is precisely the lessons of the Shoah that demand that Jewish people stand up for equality and justice. More and more Jewish people globally, and in Ireland, refuse to accept that Jewish history justifies the price Palestinians are forced to pay for the exclusively Jewish apartheid state. As Auschwitz survivor Hajo Meyer said, “Never again” means ‘Never again for anyone”.
SUE PENTEL,
Jewish Voice for Just
Peace – Ireland,
Belfast.