Those who demonise Israeli arts groups should look at themselves

This also applies in the case of the the hundreds of thousand killed and 10 million civilians displaced in Syria and Iraq; the millions of Christians ethnically cleansed and raped, kidnapped, extorted and killed all across the Middle East and North Africa; the inculcation of hatred of Jews in universities, schools, kinder­gartens, mosques and across state media in Palestine; and certainly no mention by them of the carpet bombing of Israel by Palestinians terrorists who have bombed the one Jewish state amongst 23 Muslim-Arab states many times since Israel left Gaza in 2005.

I say to those signatories: Hamas, also known as the Islamic Resistance Movement, works with Isis, which works with al Qaeda, which works with the Taliban, which works with Boko Haram and Al Shabab and Hizballah.

Those who demonise Israel and Israeli arts groups in this way should realise just what they are supporting.

Elliot Davis,

The Countryhouse,

Kilmarnock.

I WISH to ask the signatories of the letter opposing the Israeli theatre group: "Where is your voice when barrages of rockets rain down in Israel?"

While you comfortably moralise against Israel, have you actually experienced life under daily, 24-hour rocket bombardment with only a 15-second window of opportunity to grab children, or emerge from their beds to seek shelter?

We hear the term "disproportion­ate" in the context of the Gaza situation.

What can be more disproportionate than their silence when Israel is indiscriminately and incessantly being attacked by Hamas rockets, yet they clamour in outrage against the Edinburgh Festival appearance of a peaceful visit from an Israeli theatre group?

Their modus operandi appears to be "hear nothing, see nothing and say nothing in condemnation of Hamas".

Not as much as a whisper is heard from them to demand that Hamas cease its indiscriminate collective punishment against Israeli civilians from constant indiscrimin­ate rocket fire.

I rest my case.

M Green,

103 Ayr Road,

Glasgow.

AS one of those at the receiving end of the appalling collective punishment I wish to reply to those sour fuddy-duddies who don't want us Scots to enjoy ourselves. Are we being punished and not allowed to choose our entertainment?

Are Jewish shows forbidden? I don't have an axe to grind, being 100 per cent gentile. But I do love fun, which has apparently been banned.

Why is it that Jews are not allowed to defend themselves?

If a bully attacked your spouse and kids no-one would question your right to stop them.

Margaret E Salmond,

2F Falcon Buildings,

Dunbar Street,

Aberdeen.

AS the co-ordinator of the open letter calling for a boycott of the Israeli state-funded theatre company Incubator, I read the responses of the unnamed spokesman for Underbelly venues, where Incubator's show is scheduled to be performed, with interest.

He raises the issue of "freedom of expression". This is a disingenuous argument, often used in opposition to the campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel.

Where artists funded by the state of Israel are concerned, the "freedom of the artist" is a misnomer.

As can be seen in contracts it issues to arts companies which it funds, the Israeli state uses its artists to attempt to give itself a sense of legitimacy, normalcy and prestige internation­ally.

Tis is despite its ongoing, brutal and illegal occu­pation, as typified by the appalling war against the people of Gaza.

There is an increasing inter­national consensus that Israel is an apartheid state.

State-funded Israeli arts companies touring internation­ally are serving the same function for Israeli apartheid as official sports teams did for apartheid South Africa.

It is worth noting that 40,000 people marched in support of the Palestin­ians in Cape Town earlier this week and that Bishop Desmond Tutu supports the BDS movement.

Underbelly raises the question of a Jewish/Arab school with which Incubator's director, Arik Eshet, was involved.

I spoke with Mr Eshet on the phone from Jerusalem before the boycott campaign was launched.

He claims to oppose the occupation, yet there is no mention of it on his company's website.

Unlike other, brave Israeli artists who refuse state funding, he defended taking money from the Israeli Ministry of Culture and Sport on the dubious grounds that he is "an artist, not a politician".

The stated primary purpose of the Beracha Foundation, which supplied the funds to create Incubator Theatre in 2005, is "to provide philanthropic aid to the Jewish community in Israel".

In other words, the foundation's concern is to uphold Israel as a Jewish supremacist state.

The supposed "co-existence" it claims to promote with "Israeli Arabs" (that is, the small proportion of Palestinians left within the borders of Israel after the waves of violent ethnic cleansing which are the basis of the Israeli state) is one in which the Arab population learns to "coexist" as subjugated, second or third-class citizens.

Incubator Theatre, from its very inception, has been tied into the Israeli state, part of its ideology, part of its funding infrastructure.

As the people of Gaza are massacred in their hundreds, Underbelly may not consider that a problem, but we, the great many signatories to the open letter, certainly do.

Mark Brown,

c/o University Of Strathclyde Students' Association,

90 John Street,

Glasgow.