Opinion

No evidence provided to dispute ‘apartheid state’ assertions

I wish to reply to the letters criticising  my description of Israel as an “apartheid state” and the challenge to the Khazar  theory of Jewish heritage.

The ‘friends of Israel’ correspondents Lyn Julius (June 19) and biblical exponent Colin Nevin (June 20) both attempt to dispute my assertions without providing evidence other than the myth that all Jews are genetically tied to the middle east. Julius contends that the ‘Khazar’ theory has been debunked.


By whom?


The notion of all Jewish people being  a distinct race was first ventured by the early Zionists of the 19th century as a means of pressure for a homeland. The Israeli geneticist Eran Elhaik  set out to investigate this claim subsequently publishing his findings in Genome Biology Evolution (2012). He established scientifically that most European Jews are of  ‘Turkic’ origin being found in Ukraine, Russia and south eastern Europe displaced after their conversion to Judaism in the Jewish state of Khazar.


The notion of the ancestral homeland in Palestine does not stack up for most European  Jews. According to Orthodox Jewish law one claims descent through the mother to be considered Jewish. What of the Paternal line and the centuries of assimilation, are they to be dismissed? In 1970 Israel passed a ‘Right of Return law’ which stated any one with one grandparent is considered Jewish and had the right to return to Israel. This opened the flood gates for a much-needed population boom with many Russians, Americans and Europeans flooding to Israel for a new life and instant conversion which was criticised in Israel at the time.


If one converts to Judaism does that entitle one to be considered a ‘Semite’?


Colin Nevin, however, argues on a biblical right to Palestine for all Jews based on a false notion their ancestors resided there centuries ago as stated in the Bible. Many centuries ago the Celts lived in central Europe have they the right to Austria or Switzerland?


Neither of these correspondents have ever responded to the treatment of Palestinians, the ethnic cleansing and land grabs, the right of US adventurers in settlements to attack the indigenous population with impunity.

Finally, Lyn Julius argues only refugees are kept in camps. He forgot to tell us how they got there and who dispossessed them.


On March 26 2016 a prominent Jewish intellectual wrote an article in Haaretz a liberal Israeli newspaper. He wrote: “I am a Jew because I chose to be a Jew, not because of some biological reason or some external force.”

FRANCIS RICE


Belfast BT11

Fr D’Arcy’s tantalising conundrum will take some working out

So Fr Brian D’Arcy has accepted an OBE (June 8) – and hopes it will help the cause of peace here. Now there is a tantalising conundrum that will take some working out.

Our evolutionary journey has brought us to where we are today. From simple cells in the early Pre-Cambrian seas two billion-plus years ago, we have progressed, albeit painstakingly slowly to complex, ultra conscious thinking, intelligent and rational humans – humanisation – the very apogee of life itself. But there were milestones in that journey. Sometime in the distant past, perhaps in the Carboniferous as lesser creatures we flapped, hummed and buzzed as anonymous drones in the service of a fat queen who gorged upon the fruits of our endless toil before we burnt out with exhaustion. This slavish existence was far from humanisation but standardisation.

This dubious award comes at a time when progressive-thinking and rational people in Britain are trying to rid their society of this degrading and de-humanising aberration in their society which is the English monarchy, and classes people as subjects and not humans. It is a throwback to that distant past and a rejection of that magnificent achievement of evolution.

And who deserve to be more cherished and celebrated in that achievement than radical priests who challenge ecclesiastical and governmental authority and champion the causes of downtrodden and impoverished people. They are rare but we are privileged to have one in Ballymurphy and another in Fermanagh.

And some of us may have hoped that in Fr Brian we had another. But alas was it only an illusion – or was he just a subject all along?

JACK DUFFIN


Belfast BT11

British double standards

It is appropriate that British prime minister Theresa May is demanding accountability from Russian president Vladimir Putin relating to last year’s poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury. Mrs May said, “there cannot be a normalisation of our bilateral relationship until Russia stops irresponsible and destabilising activity in the UK”.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar must be no less demanding for British accountability regarding the release of the files pertaining to the Dublin and Monaghan bombings in 1974 and the 1971 random killings by members of the Parachute Regiment stationed in Ballymurphy of 11 people in hugely controversial circumstances.

In lecturing Mr Putin on the Skripal issue while simultaneously ignoring her government’s obligations in regard to the atrocities in Dublin, Monaghan and Ballymurphy, Mrs May is adopting double standards.

TOM COOPER


Dublin 2

Imperilled union

Trite it may be but nothing describes the omnipresent Brexit better than it being an enigma wrapped up in a riddle. The two contenders for the post of prime minister, Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt, have failed to explain how they can overcome the indomitable Irish border back stop.

For the electorate of the north, already saddled with two indolent political parties in Sinn Féin and the DUP, we might assume that coupled with Brexit things cannot get much worse. Well they can, especially for the DUP.

Former prime minister Gordon Brown believes that the Union in the UK is more imperilled than it has ever been in its 312 years existence. The Conservative and Unionist party are supposedly staunch defenders of the union with the north of Ireland, but in a recent poll 59 per cent of its members said they were prepared to sacrifice that union to secure the Brexit deal they want. This region of the UK is expendable and would be traded in for the price of a back stop. This is the DUP’s reward for propping up a ramshackle government, so let us have no more mawkish special relationship nonsense.

Arlene Foster should wake up and be alert to the possibility of a breakup of the union, ensuring that in the event of this occurring, she does not leave the north up the creek without a paddle like the Conservative government did over Brexit. Less dogmatism and more cross-border diplomacy would be a productive beginning.

WILSON BURGESS


Derry City