Sir, – The Israeli ambassador’s suggestion that calling for a ban on the importation of illegal settlement produce is evidence that Christian Aid has been “manipulated by the radical left”,(Home News, December 3rd) does a disservice to the plight of the people of the region.
Christian Aid makes no apology for advocating for a ban on the importation of illegal settlement produce. Settlements are a major cause of poverty, and a significant obstacle to peace.
More than 40 per cent of the West Bank has already been taken by Israel for settlements, roads and the military, while Palestinian access to water in the area is severely restricted.
Continued trade in produce from the illegal settlements perpetuates their existence by making them economically profitable.
Calling on the Irish government and European partners to ban the importation of produce that comes from these illegal settlements is entirely in keeping with the aims and values of an organisation that has a long tradition of tackling poverty and injustice around the world. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – I found the article (Home News, December 3rd) in which you highlighted products being made in the Israeli/ Palestinian disputed territories, one of the most blatant examples of editorial bias I have ever come across. The more than subliminal message you portrayed was that the products highlighted should be avoided or at worst boycotted. This bias is, of course, nothing new to your paper or the Irish media in general, which more often than not portrays Israel as bad and the Palestine Authority as good.
Leaving aside that argument, I look forward to articles where your readership is informed of other products that should be boycotted, such as oil from the Persian Gulf, where human rights (for women) are suppressed; coffee from South America, where native Indians are being terrorised out of their lands, smart phones made in Chinese factories that have inordinate suicide rates amongst their employees and high street chains where some of their clothing is produced in sweat shops in Asia. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – The Irish Congress of Trade Unions clearly has double standards. It never proposed any boycott of Israel’s enemies at any time during the Second Intifada when almost 1,000 innocent Israeli civilians were mercilessly murdered by suicide bombings; nor at any time during the past decade when over 11,000 rockets were fired indiscriminately from Gaza and terrorised over a million Israeli civilians in their towns and cities.
If Israeli settlements in illegally occupied land deserve to be boycotted, then surely the Ictu should also be boycotting Israel’s enemies, who still have the avowed aim of not merely invading and occupying Israel, but of destroying that country and its people altogether? Or are the latter aims somehow not to be regarded as illegal? Thus, I find the Ictu’s lack of even-handedness in this matter to be incredible. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Mark Weiss (“Israel to retain €90m owed to Palestinians”, World News, December 3rd) reports, “Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said the money . . . is collected from Palestinians working in Israel on behalf of the authority”.
In fact this money is the tax revenue from the goods the Palestinian Authority imports from the world (cars, electric, appliances etc) through Israeli ports, sea and air.
Holding this money by Israel is an immoral act because it is a breach of the Paris economic protocol of 1994, signed by both Israel and Palestine. This protocol states that Israel collects taxes on these goods and in return it charges the Palestinian authority 3 per cent of the total amount it collects. Accordingly, holding all of this money for any reason by Israel the occupying power is a blatant act of theft.
I also would like to affirm that what is mentioned in your report – that this money comes from Palestinians working in Israel – is a kind of a cheap propaganda from the Israeli finance minister.
The web site of our finance ministry pmof.psclearly shows that sums of income tax collected from Palestinians work in Israel is very near zero. – Yours, etc,