Armchair Revolutionaries

Never do anything finite.

Hi to everybody...thought you might be interested in these two letters from the Independent yesterday...re Hebron and what's going on there..

Victims of settler violence in Hebron

Sir: I have worked as an observer three times in the Tel Rumeida district of Hebron and immediately recognised the portrait of injustice and casual brutality by members of the Israeli army, police and settlers (report, 19 April). The need for outside observers was also highlighted by the article: as long as Israeli authorities are responsible for the safety of all residents and property in areas of Hebron, but act only to protect the settlers, one of the few options is for observers with cameras to film settler and army violence and to try to bring these events to the attention of the media.

On many occasions, I have been attacked by settlers from the Beit Hadassah and Tel Rumeida settlements in Hebron, often in front of Israeli soldiers or police, who on every occasion except one did nothing to stop the attacks or to attempt to apprehend the perpetrators.

The most common response from Israeli soldiers was that they could do nothing to prevent the attacks and to imply that the attack was my fault, as my mere presence as an observer was a "provocation" to the settlers.

As long as such fanatical settlers are supported by the Israeli government with army protection, financial support and near-immunity from prosecution, the situation will not improve for Palestinians in Hebron, and anyone whose presence in Hebron is considered a "provocation" by the settlers risks being attacked.

Last week, the Israeli media reported that a delegation of German politicians to Hebron were forced to cut short their visit after they were attacked by settlers. The army did not intervene.

Joanna Welch

Manchester

Sir: It is a tribute to the courage of some of the soldiers, and of Donald Macintyre, that the brutality of Israel's occupation of Hebron has been revealed. The lesson of their testimonies is that occupation, whether in Iraq, Afghanistan or Palestine, corrupts and dehumanises the occupier, even as it terrorises the occupied. Our duty should be to work towards the termination of this and other occupations.

But in this case, the occupier has encouraged foreigners, few of whom are even Israeli-born, to colonise the city and vent their fury on its defenceless citizens, against the tenets of the Geneva Conventions. The time has come to hold Israel to account by, at the minimum, making its privileges, such as the EU-Israel trade agreement, which gives Israel special export rights to the European Union, conditional on evidence that international human rights protocols are being observed.

Diana Neslen, Martine Miel, Carolyn Gelenter

There has to be a time when this behaviour is recognized as unacceptable by the rest of the world...we are rebuking China for its treatment of Tibet, Mugabe for his treatment of the Zimbabweans who oppose him, Russia for its treatment of some of its previous satellite countries and so on...but we rarely hear a strong public rebuke of Israel...this surely needs to change and it isn't anti-semitism either, just the same as it isn't anti-African to rebuke Mugabe, anti-Russian to rebuke Putin, anti-Chinese to rebuke them for Tibet...it's human beings shocked by what is perceived whether rightly or wrongly as injustices against other human beings...and by rightly or wrongly I mean there are always two sides to every story, and every country or person accused of injustices should have the right to explain why they are behaving in such a manner...if the explanation is considered valid then the two sides should be brought together to heal the rift...the efforts being made to bring Palestine and Israel together have failed constantly and every time one fails, the Palestinians end up far worse off than they were before...what we're witnessing is the systematic destruction of a people and their economy and the infrastructure of their country...that's profoundly wrong and must be stopped.