A thought on Alan Shatter’s allegations of anti-Semitism

Sir, – Alan Shatter reminds me of Aesop’s legend of the boy who cried wolf by the way he shouts “Ireland is anti-Semitic” every time there is even an implied criticism of Israeli policies in Gaza and Lebanon. (“Cancellation of Israeli charity event an act of anti-Semitic censorship,” says Shatter,” Home, April 12th).

I have been appalled at events in Gaza and Lebanon. However, I still have such fond memories of growing up in Golders Green, north London, a predominantly Jewish neighbourhood, after the second World War.

When my mother died it was the great kindness of our Jewish neighbours that helped my father keep the family together, at a time when they were grieving the loss of their own family members in the Holocaust.

I am sure there are many, like myself, who hold nothing but goodwill towards our Jewish neighbours while still horrified at what is being perpetrated in their name. – Yours, etc,