Time to stop feeling sorry for Palestinians

SIR – Daniel Teegan (letters February 14th) is right to mention the one case of Dir Yasin where there was a massacre (incidentally, estimated by Palestinian historians, to be of 91 persons and not of 136, as asserted by Teegan)

What Teegan fails to mention however is that the Israeli authorities hounded and treated the group, which perpetrated the atrocity, as terrorists and criminals. He also fails to mention that there were countless massacres of Jews (Gush Etzion, Yad Mordechai, the convoy of doctors and nurses to Hadassah Hospital et al) by Palestinians.

More importantly, he fails to mention that when the UN voted on a ‘partition plan’ whereby areas predominantly Jewish were to become a Jewish state and those predominantly Arab, an Arab state (the ‘two-states’ solution), the Palestinians rejected the plan and, instead, joined seven Arab armies and attacked the tiny Jewish state, on the day of its birth, with the declared intention of ‘driving the Jews into the sea’. He also fails to mention the 800,000 Jewish refugees who were expelled from Arab lands. And, he fails to mention how Jewish refugees were welcomed with open arms by Israel, whereas the Palestinian and Arab leadership refused to allow their refuges to be integrated, preferring them to rot in refugee camps – for use as political pawns.

Time to stop feeling sorry for the Palestinians. No other people have the privilege of having fourth generation of refuges – financed by taxpayers in Britain, US and EU.

Time for them to abandon their historic hatred and belligerence towards Israel and to make genuine peace with it. When they do that, they will have a state, peace and prosperity.

Is that asking too much?

Sincerely,

Joshua Rowe,

Manchester.