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Collective punishment

Editor: Re: “Israel, apartheid comparison doesn’t stand,” Letters, April 8.

Editor:

Re: “Israel, apartheid comparison doesn’t stand,” Letters, April 8.

With regard to Jack Stein’s response to Roger Lagasse’s comparison of the situation in Israel with South African apartheid – never having been to either South Africa during apartheid, nor to Israel, I do not feel qualified to judge the accuracy of this comparison myself.  However, Desmond Tutu should be able to recognize apartheid when he sees it and he has made the comparison (search Desmond Tutu/Israel to find documentation).

Both Jack and Roger are acquaintances of mine as well as of each other. I find Jack’s letter reasonable in tone, but lacking in information. I would like to know in what ways the comparison is “ludicrous.” I’m sure that the situation in Israel is different in many ways from that in apartheid South Africa. However, both regimes have carried out flagrant human rights violations. 

What I find ludicrous is the idea that anyone supporting the BDS movement must be anti-Semitic (I know Jack is not saying this in his letter, but others have said it). The Israeli settlements on Palestinian land violate international law. Israel has imposed collective punishment on Gaza. To say that protesting this through peaceful means, such as boycott and divestment, amounts to anti-Semitism is like saying that those who boycotted South Africa did it out of hatred of all white people. I consider Justin Trudeau’s denunciation of groups and individuals who choose boycott and divestment to be an attempt to stifle freedom of expression.

Human rights violations are human rights violations, no matter who perpetrates them.

Anne Miles, Gibsons