In his apologia for Israel, what Danny Wakil failed to mention about Israel’s formation is significant.
From his description you’d think the founding of Israel was a peaceful transition. There was no mention of the ethnic cleansing of thousands of Palestinian villages; no mention, for example, of the Massacre of Tantura where several mass graves of Palestinians have been found recently. Instead, only whitewashed history.
The fact that Israel is now an apartheid state was conveniently ignored in his references to Israel’s Arab citizens. As well, he ignores the illegal detention of thousands of Palestinians in Israeli prisons. Nor was there any reference to the devastating deprivation forced on Palestinians by the illegal Israeli blockade of Gaza. The illegal settlement of the West Bank by Israeli citizens was likewise forgotten. The Geneva Conventions, of which Israel is a signatory, specifically prohibit an occupier state from settling its citizens on occupied lands. Every settlement and every settler in the West Bank is illegal under international law. Through these settlements Israel is still stealing land from the Palestinians. The ethnic cleansing continues.
Israel is a criminal state. It commits thousands of human rights abuses every day and no amount of Danny Wakil’s blandishments can alter this reality. He should stop deluding himself and face the facts.
Warren Kennedy, Mullumbimby
Read the letter published in Echo in response to the one mentioned by Danny Wakil.