We, members of Jewish Voice for Labour, strongly condemn the Israeli army’s violent response to the Land Day demonstration in Gaza, killing 15 Palestinian civilians and wounding hundreds more, many, according to Ha’aretz, shot in the back (Report), 31 March. We call for an unconditional end to Israel’s inhuman siege of Gaza and its brutal occupation of the West Bank which has destroyed the lives of generations of Palestinians. Dayenu. Enough is enough.
Pamela Blakelock, Mike Cushman, Murray Glickman, Richard Kuper, Leah Levane, Jenny Manson, Diane Neslen, Jonathan Rosenhead, Leon Rosselson, Ian Saville, Glyn Secker, Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi
• Tareq Baconi (Opinion, 2 April) fails to note that rioters in last Friday’s “march” employed guns, explosives and Molotov cocktails as part of a Hamas-orchestrated attempt to confront Israel violently. Baconi claims that “the injustices of 1948 [remain] at the heart of [the Palestinian] quest for freedom”. This shows clearly that his quarrel is not with the actions of any of Israel’s democratically elected governments, but rather with the “catastrophe” of Israel’s very existence. In so doing, Baconi perpetuates an extremist narrative that has both failed to deliver results for the Palestinians, and entrenched a form of hatred that is antithetical to peace and coexistence.
Evelyn Coster
Deputy spokesperson, Embassy of Israel
• I don’t mind Lucy Mangan calling that unpleasant adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Ordeal by Innocence “rich, dark, adult” (TV review, 2 April) but I do mind her attributing a Shakespearean quotation to Conan Doyle. “The game’s afoot” is from Henry V’s great Act 3 speech before Harfleur.
Tully Potter
Tonbridge, Kent
• There may have been no professors emeriti in Monday’s letters spread, but there were three canons. Is this a record?
Kevin Burke
London
• There is a simple solution to the growing size of the quick crossword on a Saturday (Letters, 2 April). Use the wasted space to have a Saturday Codeword. I don’t care what size it is as it has to be copied, under pain of death, so that we both have an enlarged copy to work on simultaneously.
Hugh Baker
Fetcham, Surrey
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