Madam, - It is truly amazing that a such a distinguished newspaper as The Irish Times continues to give a platform to the eccentric and anachronistic meanderings of Kevin Myers.
His latest diatribe on Palestine (October 24th) is no different. His one-dimensional stereotyping of myself, in an attempt to marginalise the case for justice in Palestine, says more about the weakness of his own arguments than it does about the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
I do not need lectures from Mr Myers (a man who neither knows nor has ever met me) about my character, or about my right to have an opinion about Palestine or the suffering of its people.
However, if perchance there are any readers of The Irish Times who may be unaware of a "reality" other that that provided by Mr Myers, I think it is important the record be put straight.
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign in Belfast and elsewhere is made up of people from a diverse range of backgrounds, from left to right, from unionist to republican. In Belfast it has particularly gone out of its way in its attempts to be as inclusive as possible given the massive political polarisation in this part of the world.
As a result it has links with members of most of the main political parties there - including Sinn Féin, SDLP, Women's Coalition, Greens, PUP and UUP - and is proud of its record in that regard. It also has a wide range of links throughout the voluntary, cultural, business and trade union sectors.
The fact is that the vast majority of the people of Ireland (and the world - if the passage of UN resolutions is anything to go by) recognise the justice of the Palestinian cause and are becoming more vocal about it.
Despite attempts by the fellow travellers of Zionist xenophobia to confuse the real issues, people are increasingly beginning to realise that the Palestine/Israel conflict is really quite simply understood.
It is about the continuing theft of one group of people's land by another and the oppression and genocide which accompany this.
The conflict is about long established universal concepts such as right versus wrong, justice versus injustice, exclusivity versus inclusivity, racism versus multiculturalism, apartheid versus integration, inequality versus equality, and violence versus peace.
It is ironic that in this day and age, 10 years after the fall of Apartheid in South Africa and in an era when concepts of racial purity and superiority are being consigned to the rubbish bin of history, we still find apologists for Zionism in the pages of The Irish Times. - Yours, etc.,
Dr FÉILIM Ó HADHMAILL, Belfast.