Sir,– Heather Abrahamson (Letters, September 26th) interprets the Iraqi-born Israeli politician Ran Cohen’s words “Nobody is going to define me as a refugee”, which I quoted in my letter of September 17th, as meaning “he does not see himself as a victim”.
Ms Abrahamson omits the quotation’s opening: “I came at the behest of Zionism ... due to the idea of redemption.”
My point was this: given that the Israeli state calls upon Jews the world over to “return” to Israel (this is “the behest of Zionism”, Israel’s state ideology), comparing the Palestinian refugee issue to that of Jews who left Arab countries for Israel, voluntarily or involuntarily, is disingenuous.
As for “the surrounding Arab countries” doing “little or nothing to absorb the Palestinians” (Ms Abrahamson omits to mention the exception: Jordan), the usual explanation is that citizenship and integration into these countries would undermine the refugees’ right of return to their homes in Palestine. That right is inalienable, and in no way lessened by the cynicism of the states using it as an excuse for their inaction. – Yours, etc,
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RAYMOND DEANE,
Dublin 1.
