Sir, – Michael McDowell’s latest article on the crisis in Gaza devotes 752 words in condemnation of Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s deeply unpopular government and the US’s uneasy support of Israel (“Israel must be firmly told ‘enough is enough’”, Opinion & Analysis, March 20th). Many words describe the wretched immiseration of the Palestinians. He ponders whether the 5,000 captured Hamas prisoners will be summarily executed. This is a cynical question to pose based without evidence, a question designed merely to demonise the IDF. There is enough suffering in Gaza without Michael McDowell distorting the reality on the ground and relying on Hamas propaganda. In a previous article, he suggested that the IDF’s treatment of Palestinian prisoners reminded him of images from the Holocaust, a deliberately dangerous and provocative statement to make (“Sheer foreseeability of what is happening in Gaza robs Biden’s handwringing of all credibility”, Opinion & Analysis, December 20th, 2023).
Ten words are apportioned to the hostages: “The fate of the surviving hostages should not be forgotten.” Barely worth an acknowledgement, it seems. As for condemnation of Iran, the Houthis, Hizbullah, there is no room in his article for that, or is it that Senator McDowell is blind to or unaware of their role in the crisis? – Yours, etc,
OLIVER SEARS,
Holocaust Awareness Ireland,
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Dublin 2.
Sir, – Prof Colin P Doherty, head of the School of Medicine in Trinity College Dublin, argues that medical personnel are entitled to protection even if they are accused of using weapons to protect themselves or their patients (Letters, March 20th). Hospitals in Gaza have been used by Hamas not only to imprison Jews captured during the October 7th pogrom in Israel, but also to launch attacks and to store weapons. Released American hostage Judith Raanan says nurses at a hospital where she and other hostages were brought cheered at the sight of the Israeli “prey”. What is a sovereign state supposed to do in such circumstances? The fighting that broke out this week when the IDF raided Al-Shifa Hospital lasted five hours. The Hamas and Islamic Jihad members in Al-Shifra that fired rifles, grenades and RPGs at Israeli troops were not trying to protect patients. Instead they used sick women and children as human shields. – Yours, etc,
KARL MARTIN,
Dublin 13.
Sir, – CDC Armstrong insists that blame for the appalling death toll and looming famine in the Gaza Strip should attributed to Hamas, rather than to Israeli aggression and expansionism (Letters, March 19th).
To test this hypothesis, one only has to look to the West Bank, where Hamas is not militarily organised, but where Dáil Éireann has long unanimously agreed that the Israeli state is pursuing “de facto annexation”, where UN Human Rights chief Volker Türk observes that “drastic acceleration in settlement building is exacerbating long-standing patterns of oppression, violence and discrimination against Palestinians”, and where Israeli occupation forces have killed 435 Palestinians, and injured 4,500, over the past six months.
Perhaps, in exclusively focusing on Hamas, CDC Armstrong is confusing cause with effect. – Yours, etc,
BRIAN Ó ÉIGEARTAIGH,
Dublin 4.