Sir, – In his letter of April 28th, the Israeli ambassador repeatedly categorises the unarmed protesters in Gaza as "terrorists".
This is a politically and emotionally charged term which seeks to sanitise what is actually happening.
The reality is the shooting to kill by the Israeli Defence Forces of unarmed Palestinian protesters.
Since March 30th, Israeli army snipers have shot over 1,000 unarmed protesters and killed 42 people.
These casualties include children, journalists, people praying, medics assisting the wounded, and people running away and being shot in the back.
Furthermore, the Israeli minister for defence has effectively stated that he regards all Gaza residents as legitimate targets.
So, what is the protest about? The clue is in its name “The Great March of Return”. It is about the right of Palestinian refugees to return to the homes that they were driven from upon the formation of the Israeli State in 1948. This right has been denied to them. By contrast, any individual with one Jewish grandparent, regardless of their place of birth on the planet, is entitled to emigrate to Israel and become a citizen of the Jewish state.
The ongoing treatment of the Palestinian people by the Israeli state is discriminatory, dehumanising, oppressive, brutal, and replete with breaches of international law.
These are the expressed views of such respected observers as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, UN Human Rights Council, Defence of Children International, Yesh Din, B’tslem, and Jewish Voice for Peace.
Since 1948 the Palestinians have been told that they are the aggressors and terrorists, and the people that dispossessed them, the innocent victims.
The Palestinians have been crushed, dispossessed, tortured, and killed in terrible numbers.
Could there be a more convincing testimony to the truth of what I have said than the unrepentant shooting to kill of unarmed protesters at the behest of the Israeli state? – Yours, etc,
BARRY MEYLER,
Greystones,
Co Wicklow.
Sir, – In recent weeks, scores of protesting Palestinians have been slain and many hundreds wounded within the confines of Gaza by the Israeli army.
Not a single Israeli has been killed or reported injured during those occurrences.
With reference to these events, the Israeli ambassador Ze’en Boker spins the yarn that the slain and wounded were “violent rioters and terrorists” while those who committed the killings and woundings were a “moral army”.
Can it be that the ambassador actually believes what he writes?
Or does his excellency simply possess a vastly inflated view of the gullibility of Irish people? – Yours, etc,
CHARLES HAYES,
Midleton,
Co Cork.