There is one unfortunate phrase in your otherwise excellent editorial on Israel-Palestine (4 July). You say the residents of Jenin’s refugee camp are the children and grandchildren of those who “lost their lands to the new state of Israel in 1948”. In reality, this is a euphemism for “were deliberately driven out of their lands to make space for the new state”. The ethnic cleansing of upwards of three-quarters of the Palestinians in what would become Israel was deliberate and violent, and should not be whitewashed.
Richard Barnes
Chair, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions UK
• So, Tony Blair’s latest messianic pronouncement, in the face of the obvious catastrophe of the UK’s 40-year disastrous experiment with privatisation, is that the NHS needs more private involvement (Report, 5 July). Has this old war criminal been living under a Bush?
Amanda Baker
Edinburgh
• Archie Leach, the young Cary Grant, is described as a “penniless boy with a West Country accent” (The trauma of Cary Grant: how he thrived after a terrible childhood - as told by his daughter, 5 July). A Bristol accent, if you please, where they add a L (not “an L”!) to the ends of words, which they don’t in Bath, Taunton, Exeter, Bodmin, Gloucester or Dorchester. Only in Bristol can you discuss the purchase of azaleals with a florist.
Rob Harris
Westbury-on-Severn, Gloucestershire
• Some years ago, while I was waiting to conduct a funeral, crematorium staff assured me that a previous funeral had Knocking on Heaven’s Door to come in and I Hear You Knocking (“but you can’t come in”) to go out (Letters, 3 July).
Rev Mike Lewis
Laleston, Bridgend
• Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
