I have been introduced to your excellent paper by a Byron local who is staying down here in Sydney. I won’t say his name, but he is one of this country’s greatest documentary filmmakers, and has even made one called The Battle For Byron. He is someone of such creativity that he should know where the next dollar is coming from. But we live in a country that has lots of money to give back to the rich, but not much for people who could actually use it for the common good.
I want to write an answer to Vic Alhadeff’s letter (‘Israel’s presence’, February 10). The reason that the Palestinians, together with the Arab world in general, did not accept the partition of Palestine, was that they were being told to give up a substantial part of their country to a group of colonists.
Mr Alhadeff may like to stand history on its head, but, please, not at the expense of the people of Palestine.
We can see the West Bank being eaten away by Israel’s illegal settlements, or rather colonies. Good Jewish people in Israel, such as those who belong to Breaking the Silence, cannot tolerate the cruelty and injustice.
My father was a Jewish refugee from Austria, so he might have been on the side of the Alhadeffs of this world. But he wasn’t. Like any reasonable person, he could see how the land of the Palestinians was partitioned from under them. In effect, they paid the price for Europe’s crimes.
Now is the time for less propaganda from Israel, and fair dealing with the Indigenous people. And the same could be said of this country as well.
Keep up the great publication. I can hardly believe that it’s free.
Stephen Langford, Paddington
