Madam, – Paul Cullen reports that the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) has handed in a petition of 6,000 signatures to Dunnes Stores requesting that they refrain from stocking Israeli goods (Home News, July 30th).
Six thousand signatures represent a small fraction of Dunnes Stores’ huge customer base and cannot be representative of the Irish people. In light of their campaign, the IPSC and Sinn Féin by proxy support the government of the Gaza Strip,
This petition would put Dunnes Stores in a political position where it would be forced to indirectly support Hamas, a widely-acknowledged terrorist and fundamentalist organisation with scant respect for human rights, especially those of women, and whose constitution demands the eradication of the state of Israel. As a Jew and an Irish citizen, it is not unreasonable for me or my co-religionists to deduce that ultimately this petition is not representative of the real facts regarding the Israeli-Palestinian problem and could well suggest to most true democrats an underlying form of anti-Semitism.
Sadly, such a possibility is becoming apparent as more and more “bleeding hearts” join an ever-growing campaign availing of any opportunity to condemn Israel, which not surprisingly happens to have a large Jewish majority.
Because of petitions like those of the IPSC, I feel a little less comfortable in my own country and wonder how many of my fellow countrymen would choose between supporting a western democracy like Israel or the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip.
Supporting the petition is ultimately supporting the perpetuation of terrorism in the Middle East in the shape of Hamas. Finally, the question has to be asked: which is better? Supporting an elected government in Gaza that demands the utter destruction of its neighbour or supporting a western-style democracy where Arab, Christian and Jewish peoples are safe under a constitution that guarantees their equality. – Yours, etc,