The war on Palestinians did not start on October 7th

EDITOR – In response to some of your pro-Israeli correspondents, I would like to point out that the war on Palestinians did not start after the Hamas outrage on Oct 7th last. It started with the Deir Yassin massacre of Palestinians by Jewish terror gangs in April 1948 which led to the mass exodus of some 330,000 Palestinians, fleeing in terror. Months later, the disconnected Arab armies attacked the Jewish gangs without success.

Israel has occupied, ethnically cleansed and practised apartheid against the Palestinian people ever since. Today, the Palestinians have their own Warsaw ghetto, Gaza, a hell on earth with 20,000 family members slaughtered by the Israeli army with bombs and bullets supplied by Biden administration. History has shown us that a people who are forcibly constrained by a massive hostile army invent their own armed response. In this instance it is Hamas.

Our reader says that ‘as long as America remains under the whip of the strong Zionist lobby and its leaders willing to carry the Israeli baggage, peace with justice will not prevail’. (Photo: Shutterstock)

People who think Jews have a ‘right’ to the Holy Land could read The Invention of the Jewish People by Prof Shlomo Sand. Prof Sand of Tel-Aviv university agrees with Ilan Ziv and Illan Pappa, saying that the Jews in Israel today are not the descendants of the biblical Hebrews. They do not share a common ethnicity, DNA or the culture of the 56,000 Jews who lived in peace with their other Arab neighbours in the Holy Land until the 1920s.

These experts quote a growing mountain of evidence which undermines Zionism, by showing that the modern Palestinians are the descendants of the Jews of Roman Palestine. Israel today was created by descendants of converts to Judaism. As long as America remains under the whip of the strong Zionist lobby and its leaders are willing to carry the Israeli baggage, peace will not prevail.

Biden, Blinken and Nethanyahu must face trial for and war crimes including genocide. The stated aim of the Zionists is the total control of the lands from the river Jordan to the Mediterranean sea. They are well on the way of achieving this intention with the barbaric elimination of the indigenous Palestinian people.

Daniel Teegan,
Union Hall.

Israel’s brutal actions in Gaza a blatant war crime

EDITOR – The forced displacement of a million Palestinians who have nowhere to go is a blatant war crime – it guarantees nothing for Israel except deaths and destruction.

It could, in fact, make Hamas stronger and create a wider war in the region and bring Iran and Hezbolla into the fray. The Irish government must openly condemn Israel and call for an immediate ceasefire and negotiations which must address the root cause of the conflict.

It is based on decades of supression of Palestinian people by successive Israeli governments who steal their lands and shoot them dead on a weekly basis.

Noel Harrington,
Kinsale.

Will RTÉ stop its coverage of horse racing now?

EDITOR – As the DG sits in crow’s nest judgement of RTÉ operations, will he swing a financial scythe towards the station’s coverage of horse racing?

This minority interest takes up RTÉ resources and personnel for around 31 horse racing days during the year.

The function of horse racing is to be a gambling medium.

All geared towards a tiny audience who see nothing wrong with racing horses to their deaths in the pursuit of a gamble. Soft-focus public relations by the Irish horse racing industry backed up government funding (the taxpayer) cannot erase the immense animal suffering and death that is embedded in this so called ‘sport of kings’.

Horse racing is organised animal cruelty dressed up in a cant expressing the thrill of the chase, the best turned out and the craic at the track.

The tagline ‘Go Racing’ hides the fact that horses are often raced to their death in order to provide entertainment for numpties.

‘My job is to restore trust’ are words that the DG needs to live up to.

John Tierney
Campaigns Director
Association of Hunt Saboteurs
Dublin 1

Middle East war means Ukraine largely forgotten

EDITOR – With the outbreak of war in the Middle East and the possibility of an outbreak in the West Bank, the Ukrainian offensive in the east of Ukraine seems to have been largely forgotten. Ukraine needs sophisticated fighter jets if it is to punch a hole in Moscow’s defences. If we do not arm Ukraine, we are giving it to tyranny and a dictator in the east.

Michael Hallissey,
Mayfield, Bandon.

Lough Hyne on tourism list may cause problems

EDITOR – I read with interest the recent article which pointed out that Fáilte Ireland had put Lough Hyne marine reserve on a list of Top 10 best places to swim in Ireland.

Your correspondent rightly pointed out that the lake was recently mentioned by scientists as being in a vulnerable condition, due to a combination of overuse for leisure activity and also possible run-off of nitrates from land around the south west coast.

Although Lough Hyne is, strictly speaking, not a lake but a ‘loch’ in the real sense of the word – because it is not cut off from the sea like traditional lakes, but fed by it – it is still called a lake by many in the locality. And while it is still used regularly for swimming by small, mainly local, groups, promoting it to an international audience as an ideal swimming spot could be detrimental to its future.

The scientists quoted also noted that it is a vital source for marine research by UCC and others, and another scientist made the disagreeable, but ultimately accurate, comment that the car park smelled of urine last summer.

It may be time to start taking a more strict stance on leisure use at the ‘lake’ in order to protect it for future generations of scientists.

Sue Crowe,
Ballincollig.