Responsibility for the Palestinians’ living conditions lies with Israel

The demonisation of the Palestinian people by Desmond Fitzgerald continues unabated (Letters, October 8).

He now claims that were a Palestinian state ever to come into existence, it would simply become “another backward, oppressive and corrupt state”, presumably like Israel’s allies Egypt and Jordan.

However, his prophecy that ‘its failure is inevitable’ will probably never be tested because Israel has no intention of ever allowing it to exist in the first place, and Israel’s leaders, including Benjamin Netanyahu, are on record as saying so.

The Palestinian people want their own state for similar reasons to all other people: the power to choose their own destiny, to govern their own affairs, and no longer to be oppressed by another group. In essence, they want freedom.

But for Mr Fitzgerald the rationale for a Palestinian state is based on “the Muslim hatred of Jews”.

In claiming this, he overlooks that the Palestinian people include Christians and indeed Jews as well as Muslims, and that Palestinian Arabs and Jews lived side by side in relative peace until the advent of Zionism.

I previously made the assertion that Israel and its supporters continually blame others for the protracted plight of Palestinian refugees.

In proving this assertion, Mr Fitzgerald claims, again without providing evidence, that Palestinian leaders “prefer to keep their people living in squalor”. In addition he claims that Arab states are also responsible for their situation.

But the burden of responsibility for Palestinian refugees lies with Israel, and it is Israel’s refusal to comply with international law and Resolution 194 that has prolonged their suffering.

It seems that Mr Fitzgerald either does not believe in international law, or does not believe that it is applicable to Israel.

Jack O’Neill

Carrigtwohill

Co Cork