Sir, – Attacking Zoë Lawlor’s advocacy of a peaceful, global boycott of the Israeli state, Jackie Goodall of the Ireland Israel Alliance dismisses reports that the population of the Gaza Strip is starving (Letters, May 2nd).
Perhaps Ms Goodall should consult senior UN humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza, Sigrid Kaag, who this week warned that the Israeli state may be using starvation as a weapon of war in the Gaza Strip, and insisted that “effective humanitarian operations cannot be reduced to counting trucks . . . this is a false metric for gauging whether humanitarian assistance is sufficient, let alone whether it responds to the basic humanitarian requirements”.
Meanwhile, at the Allenby Bridge border crossing between Jordan and the Occupied West Bank, the last 48 hours have seen Israeli “demonstrators” violently seize flour shipments bound for the Gaza Strip, and spill the life-saving resources onto the tarmac, while Israeli security forces stand by.
So much for what Ms Goodall lauds as “a democracy based on human dignity and liberty”. – Yours, etc,
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BRIAN Ó ÉIGEARTAIGH,
Donnybrook,
Dublin 4.
Sir, – Academics for Palestine (Letters, May 2nd) are wrong to say the International Court of Justice has determined that the actions of Israel “may plausibly constitute genocide”.
The court decided the Palestinians had a “plausible right” to be protected from genocide and that South Africa had the right to present that claim, but the court did not make a ruling on whether the claim of genocide was plausible. – Yours, etc,
Dr JOHN DOHERTY,
Gaoth Dobhair,
Co Dhún na nGall.
