Israel’s unconditional defenders are its worst enemy

WHAT the recent letters to your paper defending Israel have in common is an obsession with effects and a refusal to deal with causes.

The primary causes of violence in the Middle East are the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians that followed the violent foundation of the Israeli state in 1948 and the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestinian and Syrian territories following the 1967 war.

Israel has persistently denied the right of return of Palestinian refugees, which is guaranteed by Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, just as it has ignored successive UN resolutions calling on it to withdraw from the occupied territories in accordance with the cardinal principle that it is inadmissible to acquire and retain territory by force. Just as the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, which was aimed at driving the PLO out of that country, led to the foundation of Hezbollah, Israel’s refusal to comply with the minimal demands of the Oslo peace process with the Palestinians led to the foundation of Hamas.

The first suicide bombings within Israel took place almost 50 years after the foundation of that state, testifying to the growing desperation of the Palestinian people and their slow realisation that Israel was above the law and they were beneath it.

The same unconditional defenders of Israel who now demonise the Palestinians for these admittedly indefensible acts never showed any respect for those same Palestinians in the preceding decades.

It is time for Israel’s supporters to understand that their pet state will never have peace or security as long as it continues to flout international law and scorn the rights of the people whom it has displaced.

Without such understanding, Israel’s friends are its worst enemies.

Raymond Deane

Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign

64 Dame Street

Dublin 2.