Sir, – Karl Martin (March 9th) queries the "singling out of Israel for condemnation, and even demonisation" among other states that commit human rights abuses.
The answer is contained within the question. Benefitting as it does from an annual $3 billion in US military aid, favourable access to EU markets via the Euro-Med Trade Agreement, and a consistently-used US veto at the UN Security Council, Israel is indeed “singled out”.
Unlike several of the nations that Mr Martin mentions (Russia, Iran, North Korea), Israel has never been the subject of economic sanctions by the West, despite decades of human rights abuses against the Palestinian people, and despite the defiance of successive Israeli governments of numerous UN resolutions.
It is outrage at precisely this impunity that motivates ordinary people throughout the world – and especially in Ireland due to our historical experience of colonial oppression – to support the Palestinian people in their struggle for justice. – Yours, etc,
BRIAN Ó ÉIGEARTAIGH,
Donnybrook,
Dublin 4.