Questions of fairness and Israel 3

David Cesarani bemoans the recent surge of anti-Semitism in British society and then says, "Most Jews in Britain have ties to or identify with Israel."

We can no longer rationalise this kind of incendiary rhetoric, this kind of vicious and cowardly act of intellectual terrorism that disrupts the serenity of British campuses; we cannot tolerate the terrible campaign of the demonisation of Jews.

However, those who have ties with Israel must ask themselves which Israel they support? The Israel that crushed Rachel Corrie, the American peace activist, under the blades of a bulldozer while she was struggling to prevent it from demolishing a Palestinian house? The Israel that killed Tom Hurndall while he was shepherding Palestinian children to safety? The Israel that intends to impose unilaterally a final status that it knows would jeopardise the viability of any future Palestinian state? The Israel that shows reckless contempt for human life in the Occupied Territories, defies international law and UN resolutions and flouts the Fourth Geneva Convention, or the Israel that is a democratic country within its internationally recognised borders?

Munjed Farid Al Qutob

London