Egypt and Jordan had annexed Gaza before the Six Day War

No doubt unintentionally Con Hayes (Letters, December 23) exposed the myth and hypocrisy of the Irish Palestinian supporter. He states without any irony that Israel has illegally ‘occupied’ the West Bank and Jerusalem since 1967.

What is important about that date? It refers to a war of attack on Israel and is known as the Six-Day War, when it took six days for Israel to defeat the combined armies of Syria, Egypt, Jordan and Iraq.

What people like Mr Hayes turn their face from is the hard truth that the root cause of the Middle East’s problems is not the state of Israel, it’s not even where its borders are drawn.

No society or religion is perfect but Islam and Muslim majority societies are unique in the world for the venom they direct at others through their religion. There is no Muslim country that comes close to offering its own peoples the scale of protection and human rights that we take for granted in our societies.

Mr Hayes doesn’t explain that part of Israel’s victory in 1967 was to have a buffer zone to protect itself from the next invasion and that is why it retained control over Gaza, the West Bank, Jerusalem, Sinai and the Golden Heights.

Most interestingly, Mr Hayes doesn’t use the term ‘occupied’ for the state of Gaza and the West Bank before 1967. In fact Gaza was annexed by Egypt in 1948 and the West Bank was annexed by Jordan at the same time, so why is the word ‘occupied’ only used when referring to Israel.

Desmond FitzGerald

Canary Wharf

London, UK