There should be a unitary secular state for Israelis and Palestinians

Israel has annexed land it gained through force of arms. Again, it has escaped sanctions, unlike Russia.

Israel continues to settle its people on land that it occupies through its military might.

Israel has treated the occupied Palestinians with a lack of decency and restraint (deaths and injuries are something like 9-1 and include large numbers of children and non-combatants). All this is known.

Mr Goodrich writes of “Israel’s borders”. Could he define what and where these borders are? Do they accord with international law?

But enough of the carping. These has now been so much illegal Israeli settlement on land that the UN proposed (when it also proposed establishing Israel in its original borders) for a State of Palestine, that such a state is no longer credible or viable. So something must change.

The only reasonable solution that can meet both Mr MacDonald and Mr Goodrich’s objectives is that there should be one state for both populations, under some form of confederal/federal government, and that both live under the same secular laws and social conventions. What other solution is out there?

David Ben-Gurion and other early Zionists thought the Palestinians were probably the remnants of the Jewish population who remained in historic Palestine 2,000 years ago, and who were converted to Christianity or Islam later. Genetic studies show a remarkable closeness between the two populations. Funerary and dietary traditions of the “Palestinians” were also remarkably “Jewish”. It’s a shame of historic proportions that things have gone so badly there, and may yet get worse.

GR Weir,

17 Mill Street,

Ochiltree.

THE call of the Iona Community (Letters, April 25) to support the use of economic measures to encourage Israel to abide by international law and UN resolutions is to be welcomed. It is to be hoped that the commissioners to the Church of Scotland General Assembly will give this serious consideration.

We in Britain have no direct experience of military occupation – the fear, intimidation, humiliation, dispossession, injustice and sense of impotence – all of which I have witnessed while working amongst Palestinians in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Media and other reports in an attempt at impartiality identify wrongdoing on both Israeli and Palestinian sides and there will always be individual comments to support particular points of view. But this is to normalise a very unequal situation.

Those who are skilled in resolution of intractable conflicts stress that for meaningful dialogue to take place there must be a level playing field for negotiations. This has been missing from previous peace talks. It would be a fitting mark of this centenary year of the Balfour Declaration (which was a product of British colonialism) if a start could be made to bring peace and security and a positive future for all Israelis and Palestinians.

Kate Aspinwall,

3 John Brogan Place, Stevenston.

I AGREE with Nigel Goodrich regarding the Israelis and the Palestinians. Israel is the only democracy in the region and is surrounded by failed Arab states where killing and mayhem are endemic. Arabs who are Israeli citizens have legal representation in the Knesset.

The Iona Community might care to consider the case of Hannah Bladon, the British theology student who was brutally murdered by Jamil Tamimi, a Palestinian. Because of his crime his family will be given a monthly pension of approximately £800 by the Palestinian Authority. This money is given to the family of every Palestinian who kills an Israeli. Presumably it will come from the £25 million given annually to the Palestinian Authority by the British Government.

The Church of Scotland would be better to use its efforts to help the plight of Egyptian, Syrian and Iraqi Christians who suffer persecution. It is worth noting that these churches existed about 1300 years before the Church of Scotland came into being.

Richard Mclellan,

4 Stag Park, Lochgilphead, Argyll.