Letter from an EA to the Independent Newspaper
The Independent, Letters to the Editor, 12 March 2008.
Sir: As a Brit based in the West Bank city of Hebron and working as a human rights observer, I can say that the recent murder of the Mercav HaRav Yeshiva students in Jersualem has been greeted with sadness by Palestinians here.
Such acts are illegal under international law and any loss of life in this conflict is tragic. Most Palestinians do not want to see the cycle of violence and bloodshed continue.
But for many Palestinians the condemnation of the Yeshiva killings by the international community compared to what they view as international silence over the blockade and the deaths of 100 plus Palestinians in Gaza including some 25 children, reflects that their lives are worth less than that of Israelis.
Donald Macintyre ("Tearful Eulogies for the Victims, Anger at the Weakness of Israel's leaders", 8 March) rightly points to Mercav HaRav as being the spiritual backbone of the Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.
In Hebron, where 20% of the city is under Israeli control, some 40,000 Palestinians have every aspect of their daily lives controlled by the presence of 400-500 Israeli settlers and around 2000 Israeli soldiers. Restrictions on movement, a policy of separation and discrimination by the Israeli Defence Force and settler violence has led to the destruction of the city's commercial centre. Hundreds of shops have closed and many hundreds of families have been forced to leave their homes. Settlements, which are illegal under international law, remain at the core of the Israeli Palestinian conflict and a major barrier to a peace agreement and existence of a viable future Palestinian state.
Sultana Begum, Hebron, West Bank.
