Sir, – Like many other Jewish people, I take particular exception to PJ McDermott accusing Israel of genocide towards the end of his otherwise well-argued letter on Ireland, Israel and boycotts (Letters, June 10th).
In 1942 when Jewish Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin coined the term genocide, it was to describe Nazi Germany’s attempt to wipe out entire racial groups, including Europe’s Jews.
Subsequently, their actions – such as the forced transportation of populations to extermination camps in eastern Europe where millions of people were gassed to death, their bodies burned to ashes in mass crematoria, etc – became known to the world as the Holocaust.
After the war, Lemkin’s work formed the basis of the international Genocide Convention approved by the United Nations in 1948 to help prevent such atrocities from happening again.
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While Hamas, Hizbullah and Iran have repeatedly sworn to wipe Israel off the map – a key component in the definition of genocide – on October 7th, 2023, Hamas demonstrated this was their true intent in Israel.
Like Mr McDermott, I am dismayed with the suffering caused by Israel’s actions in Gaza and southern Lebanon, but recognise that Israel is fighting Iran’s proxies in an effort to prevent a repetition of the atrocities meted out by Hamas in 2023. – Yours, etc,
DAVID M ABRAHAMSON,
Glenageary,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – The Taoiseach’s response to calls to stop the upcoming game with Israel was to do what this Government excels at: claim responsibility lies elsewhere (“Government to insist it has no role in sports fixtures in response to calls to stop Ireland-Israel games”, June 9th).
There seems to be no fence too high for this administration to climb upon whenever a principled decision is called for. – Yours, etc,
JIM O’SULLIVAN,
Rathedmond,
Sligo.
Sir, – Dr Peter Boylan (Letters, June 8th) refers to the focus on the upcoming international matches as “unhinged”. What is unhinged is that the world is expected to observe the systematic erasure of a population and hold its tongue; that this genocide continues on and still has its defenders.
While the IDF continue to murder infants in their mothers’ arms, as they did on June 5th in Hebron, there is a moral imperative to criticise the state of Israel and its apparatus. Accusations of anti-Semitism ring hollow in the face of hand-held phone footage of death in real time. – Yours, etc,
DR EOIN CASHMAN,
Knocknacarra,
Galway.
