Williams v. Phillips
From Liane Jones Sir: I was impressed that you published Emma Williams's article about the Israeli occupation (The reek of injustice', 17 May). I visited the Occupied Territories in February and was shocked to discover the brutal realities of curfew and closure, which are just as she describes.
Williams is also right to say that we rarely read the full truth about this conflict. What we get all too often is stuff like Melanie Phillips's rant (Road-map to Hell', 17 May). Phillips states that Israel offered the Occupied Territories back to the Palestinians in 1967 and in 2000 (it didn't, and has never done so); that Palestinians have never accepted the legitimacy of Israel (they have: Arafat put it in writing in 1988 and it was reaffirmed in 1991 and 1993); and that there is no UN resolution ordering Israel to allow Palestinian refugees to return (UN Resolution 194). Liane Jones London NW10 From Dr Robin Stamler Sir: Emma Williams has too many distortions in her article to be addressed here, but several of her contentions need to be challenged. Above all, she entirely omits the repeated Israeli offers of a Palestinian state, and the response — Palestinian terrorism. She recites the usual justifications for this terrorism, and in doing so reinforces the myths that the Palestinian Authority has built up over the years to disguise its corruption, violence and failure to negotiate.
She mentions ambulances being attacked, and omits to say that they were being used to carry terrorists and suicide-bomber belts. She claims that Israelis have no desire to see the West Bank and Gaza, but omits to mention why — because so many have been murdered when they venture there. She cites the allegations of Chris Hedges concerning shootings in Khan Younis, and omits to point out the serious inaccuracies in his story that belie his credibility. By his own account, he didn't see or hear anything of the supposedly deliberate shootings 'for sport' — the children in the incident he described were 'out of sight'; there were 'no sounds of gunfire' (he claims that the guns are fitted with silencers; in fact, silencers are not issued); and, above all, he omits the reporting that day by his own newspaper, the New York Times, of the attacks on Israeli soldiers near Khan Younis by 'a crowd trying to tear down surrounding Jewish settlements in Gush Katif where the shootings occurred. Hedges was subsequently condemned by his colleague at the New York Times, Thomas Friedman. Williams laments the difficulty of reporting things fairly. Both here and in her previous diatribes against Israel in The Spectator ('Why Sharon wants war', 5 October 2002) the difficulty is self-imposed.
Robin Stamler Wembley Park, Middlesex From Sheila English Sir: [would like to offer my commendation of and agreement with Melanie Phillips's article in which she says that the Palestinian Authority does not want a separate Palestinian state alongside Israel but, rather, the destruction of the state of Israel altogether. She is also right when she says that Palestinians must first cease all acts of terrorism before Israel can be expected to give any more concessions to them. The international community needs to recognise these suicide bombers' outrages as the evil, murderous acts that they are, inspired by bloodthirsty hatred caused by indoctrination, Thank you, Ms Phillips, for the courage to 'write it as it is".
Sheila English Essex From Chris Doyle Sir: Were it not Melanie Phillips writing the article. I would have assumed it was some parody of the Israeli—Palestinian situation.
As ever, she trundles out Israeli deaths but treats Palestinian deaths, far greater in number, as an irrelevant footnote, a lesser people. Let's compare figures. Israelis killed 66 Palestinians in April, while only two Israelis were killed. In May so far, Israelis have killed 29 Palestinians; four Israelis have been killed. More than 2,300 Palestinians have been killed since the intifada broke out, while 768 Israelis have been killed.
She is very selective with her use of statistics and examples. The unfortunate Israeli gardener who was killed in the West Bank was also an armed Israeli settler colonising another people's land. She might have mentioned the 18-month-old baby killed recently — but no, he was a Palestinian, so must be guilty.
Could I also bring up the inconvenient matter of Israeli war crimes, and consistent daily violations of the fourth Geneva Convention? These include indiscriminate targeting of civilians, torture, mass punishment, curfews, and, by the way, looting of Palestinian artefacts. This Convention, of which Israel is a signatory, was introduced precisely because of what happened to the Jews under the Nazis. These violations all started well before the suicide bombings.
Remarkably, Melanie Phillips claims that all Palestinians — all eight million of them — are irrevocably determined to eliminate Israel. She clearly must have spent a long time carrying out such a survey, and Palestinians must have, unique in history, a remarkably single, consistent viewpoint. So Palestinians, according to her, will never accept Israel, and therefore Israel must perpetually occupy and suppress, kill, torture and steal because it will never be accepted. Yet not one Israeli leader has signed up to a binding document accepting a Palestinian state. Do Israeli leaders accept the right of Palestine to exist? Not some of the Israeli cabinet who wish to expel or ethnically cleanse them from the Occupied Territories.
Phillips spews out the old saying that Palestinians want to wipe Israel off the map — supported by no quotes, no evidence — yet ignores the very real, documented Israeli settlement process and theft of land that has torn up the remnants of Palestine. Sharon grudgingly may allow autonomy in just 10 per cent of what was their country. Who is eradicating whom? Chris Doyle Director. Council for the Advancement of Arab—British Understanding, London EC4 From Professor John Carswell Sir: Melanie Phillips repeats once again (and it really is becoming ad nauseam) the mythical legitimacy of the Jews to 'a small part of the land to which the Jewish people lays the most ancient claim'.
Come off it! I worked for Dame Kathleen Kenyon on her epoch-making excavations at Jericho (1950-56). when for the first time mankind's historical past was joined on to prehistory. This happened after the end of the last Ice Age, c. 10,000 sc.
I would bet my bottom dollar that the indigenous Arabs of Palestine have a significantly greater claim to the land than the later arrival of the Jews (c. 1,500 BC). This is an academic point that the Palestinians haven't so far had the sense to use.
One might as easily suggest that Palestine/Israel should revert to the Ottoman Turks.
John Carswell London WC1
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