Israel is a tiny oasis of democracy that has right to self-determination

The image conjured by Daniel Teegan (25 June), of emaciated Holocaust survivors arriving in post-WW2 Palestine – their only available refuge, into which they had to be smuggled in the face of severe British-imposed entry restrictions – as representatives of “European colonialism” would be laughable if it did not embrace so much tragedy.

And that is to leave out of account the 51 percent of Israeli Jews whose ancestors were forced out of the Middle East’s Arab states, having lived there for centuries.

It is false to state that the Zionist project prevented the emergence of an independent Palestinian Arab state after World War 2. Such a state was integral to the UN partition plan. What did prevent it was the refusal of the Arabs (continuing to this day) to accept Jewish self-determination in any area, however small.