Israel’s rapacious wall
Anton La Guardia (‘A just wall’, 30 October) is spot-on in pointing out that Israel’s brutal wall is pushing the Palestinians ‘into reservations’. I have just returned from a week in Bethlehem, where I was warmly welcomed as a Jewish participant in the Olive Harvest Campaign, which calls on international volunteers to help the Palestinians harvest their olives in the face of harassment from the Israeli army and settlers. I have seen for myself how the wall is stealing Palestinian land and driving the Palestinians into ghettoes.
However, I disagree with Mr La Guardia’s contention that the Palestinians are ‘co-authors of their own tragedy’ and therefore, he implies, equally to blame, as a result of the suicide bombings. This ignores Ariel Sharon’s deliberate provocation of Hamas by assassinating its leaders — notably just after the signing of the road map. Hamas has several times offered a ceasefire if Israel will stop its assassination policy; the Israeli response has been more assassinations.
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