As an apologist for Israel, Michael Burd (Letters, 12 January) conveniently ignores the harsh truth of Israel’s brutal oppression, while claiming there are two sides to the conflict and that Palestinians are treated equally.
I believe that only one side colonises. Only one side demolishes homes, crops, schools, and hospitals. Only one side determines citizenship and belonging. Only one side travels freely. Only one side dominates the airwaves. Only one side has a nuclear arsenal.
As Netanhyahu said: ‘Israel is not a state of all its citizens. According to the Nation-State Law that we passed, Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish People – and them alone.’
Mr Burd recommends dialogue, but for Palestinians that means continually going backwards, more oppression, more violence, more land stolen. They know that Israel didn’t come to live with Palestine, it came to replace it. This is the settler-colonialist strategy, which for all the sugar-coating of Mr Burd, is at the heart of Zionism.
Well covered, Michael.
Despite the best efforts of very many Israelis and diaspora, the irony of Israel treating those it dominates much as its founders were treated by the Nazis escapes those happy to profit from that dispossesion and repression, as if it were a currency they’d earned.
And before it begins: criticism or indeed condemnation of the vile actions of a far-right government can no more be labelled ‘anti-semitic’ than condemnation of our own government’s misdeeds can be branded ‘anti-Australian’.