TUI courageously opposing apartheid in Israel

The courage and the humanity of the TUI in supporting the boycott of cultural and academic exchanges with Israel is to be applauded.

US and European leaders appear to blindly carry the baggage and guilt of the Holocaust, thus denying freedom, with justice, for the six million non-Jewish inhabitants of Israel and Palestine.

The two-state solution is obviously no longer an option, with the fragmentation and non-contiguous reality of available territory for a viable Palestinian state.

Israel, therefore, has the choice of supporting an army that is forever in conflict with its non-Jewish citizens, including the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, or of becoming a true democracy based on the principles of justice and equality. That would mean embracing all of the people who are currently victims of racism in an apartheid state system.

Well-intentioned citizens of Europe may have very little influence in changing the appalling circumstance of those people living in misery under occupation.

This change can only come about when western leaders are reminded by their electorate of their much-vaunted commitment to human rights.

That electorate’s conscience has been informed by courageous and influential organisations, such as the TUI.

Daniel Teegan

Union Hall

Co Cork