Harry Shannon
My latest letter in the Hamilton Spectator. It’s pretty much self-explanatory, though see below for some background as well as the paragraph that the newspaper edited out.
Simplistic propaganda
The letter writer (Death toll is ‘window dressing,’ February 27) claims that the sole cause of violence on the West Bank is Palestinian terrorism and Israel’s efforts to prevent it. Drawing this conclusion requires willfully ignoring many facts.
There’s the increasingly brutal and long-standing Israeli occupation. Palestinians live under oppressive military rule. Israeli settlers constantly steal Palestinian land and destroy Palestinian crops. They rampage through Palestinian villages, behaviour reminiscent of pogroms. Israeli commentators now refer not just to Palestinian terrorism but to Jewish terrorism. Many innocent Palestinians are killed in Israeli military actions and by settler terrorism.
To call all this ‘window dressing’ is outrageous. The letter writer’s simplistic propaganda is dangerous nonsense.
Harry Shannon, Dundas
The link for the letter I was responding to is here.
And now the paragraph that was edited out:
And things are getting worse with the new extremist coalition. For example, one minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has a criminal conviction for incitement to racism. His party is Otzma Yehudit – Jewish Power. He has been appointed as Minister for National Security!