Starting a state

STEVEN KING, writing about Kosovo (February 20), points out the way to set up a state: “First grab a piece of territory.

Then permit unrestricted immigration by its co-nationals from a neighbouring state. Next, ethnically cleanse the territory of all other groups to create an artificial overwhelming local ethnic majority. Last demand that these actions be rewarded by the bestowal of independent statehood.”

I see very close parallels with the founding of the state of Israel.

Does the fact that Britain and the US handed over a land belonging to other people make it legal? True, terrible cruelties and injustices were committed against the Jewish people, but that does not alter the reality that Palestine had belonged to others for centuries. If we all were to go back to our homelands of two millennia ago, we’d live in a very strange world indeed.

Patrick Browne

51 Ashleigh Park

Blackrock

Cork