Columnist should get real and try living in Gaza

HAVING read Steven King’s column (January 7), I can only conclude he has never been to the occupied Palestinian territories and conducted his research by visiting Israeli websites.

I visited the West Bank last November and I would like to paint a different picture.

First off, the Israeli state was instrumental in setting up Hamas. Learning from the British, they decided that a unified Palestine under Yasser Arafat did not serve their best interests — so they set out to divide and conquer. The success of the scheme was shown when Hamas won the last Palestinian election. However, it was not allowed get on with the job of administering the territories. Many Palestinians I spoke to were disappointed with the world’s boycott of Hamas — they were confident that, left to run the place, Hamas would show itself every bit as corrupt and incompetent as Fatah.

However, Israel was playing a bigger game. It somehow engineered almost a civil war between Fatah and Hamas and succeeded in isolating Hamas in Gaza and installing Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah in the West Bank.

Its most brilliant move was to remove the settlers from Gaza. This allowed Israel to place Gaza under siege. The fact that most Gazans (note the way we talk of Gazans, not Palestinians) spent 2008 unemployed and hungry doesn’t seem to have registered with Mr King.

I’m sure if I was living in a place where raw sewage runs down the street, I would welcome an opportunity to have a pop at the people I held responsible for my plight. I suggest Mr King visits the Palestinian territories. Just live there and experience occupation first hand. I’m sure he would return with a more nuanced view.

Dr Jack Downey

Old Cratloe Road

Limerick