We only have issue when Israel itself is a sponsor

The Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) categorically rejects Kevin McCarthy’s allegations (Letters, July 10) that the IPSC has recently, or ever, “intimidated academics, musicians and artists”.

As we have made clear on our website, neither we nor anyone officially associated with the organisation, sent a single threatening message to anyone associated with the Carey Academy – teacher, student or parent. The IPSC, in common with the BDS movement itself, neither advocates nor tolerates any violent act or threat made in the name of the campaign.

In the unlikely event that anyone has actually made such statements or engaged in such actions – they represent themselves alone. Not a shred of evidence has ever been produced by any accuser to back up the, by now all-too-routine, defamatory claims against the IPSC and thus, we must call them what they are: lies.

Furthermore, Mr. McCarthy’s assertion that the cultural boycott of Israel seeks to prevent contact between Irish people and Israelis is totally false.

For the record, the Palestinian call for a cultural boycott of Israel applies only in the case of artists receiving sponsorship from the Israeli state, or when international artists plan to perform in that state.

Indeed the IPSC itself has hosted many Israeli citizens in Ireland over the years, most recently filmmaker Yotam Feldman and journalist David Sheen.

One thing that is beyond question however, is that over the past 15 years, the Israeli state army has killed over 9,000 Palestinians.

In the same time period, the BDS movement has killed no one.

Martin O’Quigley

Chairperson

Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign

18 Capel Street

Dublin 1