It's wrong to brand Pro-Palestinians as anti-Semites

The indiscriminate blitz on Gaza and the resulting slaughter is most certainly a war crime as much as the Hamas attack on Israeli citizens was.

You would think that a nation that has suffered so much over the centuries as the Jewish nation has would have recognised the continued subjugation of the Palestinians and worked towards a two-nation state being set up. However their numerous rejections of UN resolutions and the latest retaliatory blood-letting shows that they have learned absolutely nothing. By their recent actions they have created many thousands of converts from the wider Arab nations which will continue this tragic conflict and result in many more deaths among the Israeli and Palestinian cohorts.

Kenny Sludden, Douglas, South Lanarkshire.

Read more: A show of support for Glasgow's Jews that was an antidote to hate

• I WISH to challenge the tone of Kevin McKenna’s article by presenting the Palestinians' side of the argument. I absolutely deny that by doing so I am being in any sense anti-Semitic.

The tragedy we are currently witnessing in Gaza is the latest episode in a conflict which has been fought for the 75 years since the creation of the State of Israel in 1948: in fact for about 100 years ever since Britain promised the Arabs an independent Arab state, including Palestine, after the First World War, in exchange for their support of Britain against the Ottomans.

However Peter Shambrook in his book Policy of Defeat, Britain and Palestine, 1914–1939 advises us that “Britain lied all along. This is relevant today: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was made in Britain” … which … “sowed the seeds of a bitter conflict for the control of Palestine, and established the political, economic and military framework which has contributed significantly to the appalling, relentless and still unresolved hundred-year war for Palestine”.

Britain has a responsibility as a country for that ongoing disaster, the passage of time not having wiped the slate clean. In fact it has got far worse now that an indisputably far-right influence determined to clear the Palestinians from their own land is at the heart of the Israeli government.

We Britons owe the Palestinians (and by implication the Israelis) peace, justice and security which they will never achieve as long as we and the US give the strategies adopted by Israel in relation to Palestine a disproportionate degree of support.

John Milne, Uddingston.

Read more: We should do away with long summer holidays

Doubts over Orkney killing

IN view of the retrospective documentary Cold Case Killers, screened recently on Channel 5, concerning the shooting of an Asian waiter in Orkney in 1994, it should be pointed out that Michael Ross, convicted of the murder 14 years later, is still serving a 25-year sentence for a crime that many believe he did not commit.

The following are the facts: on the evening of June 2, 1994, a masked gunman walked into the busy Mumutaz restaurant in Kirkwall, killed a waiter by a single shot and fled immediately. As the killer wore a full balaclava no direct identification was possible. At the time Michael Ross was a schoolboy aged 15.

Two days prior to the murder, witnesses reported seeing two men shouting "death threats" at the victim. These men were never traced, but were believed to be from outwith Orkney.

It took the police 12 years to produce new evidence, in the form of an anonymous letter handed to the police, alleging that Ross had been seen locally in possession of a gun.

Throughout the 15 years Michael Ross has been in prison he has never wavered in protesting his innocence.

A campaign, Justice for Michael Ross (J4MR) has been active for the last five years, with the object of having his conviction overturned. The human rights lawyer, Aamer Anwar, has taken on the case, with a view to having it referred back to the Court of Appeal.

I think it is important to understand that, given all that has come to light, a miscarriage of justice cannot be ruled out.

Alison Lambie, Stirling.

Should our school holiday traditions be changed? (Image: PA)
Tweaking the school holidays

REGARDING Denis Bruce's letter (November 27) on school holidays, I feel he goes too far. Where else in the world do you have a summer holiday of only three weeks ? However, I feel there could be improvements. Some regions have only a one or two-day break in a very long three-month term taking in January, February and March. I believe that pupils and teachers would benefit greatly from having a "February week" break (similar to October). This has been the case in England for many years. As our October holiday is earlier than down south, I would recommend a Monday holiday in late November to break up the long stretch till Christmas.

All this could be achieved by cutting the summer holidays to six weeks (still breaking up at the end of June, but starting back a little earlier). And it would not interfere with the traditional Scottish holiday weekends in September and May.

John Macnab, Troon.

Take away the home comforts

ROMANTIC though it may be, the prospect of the Celtic v Buckie Scottish Cup tie does not set the pulse racing.

In cup draws in Germany and Spain, teams from a lower division automatically play at home ("Heimrecht", in German). This makes many a pairing more interesting, with banana skins laid for the big boys.

Four weeks ago the mighty Bayern Munich were beaten 2-1 by third-tier Saarbruecken, despite Mueller giving them the lead. There was a healthy full house of 16,000.

George Morton, Rosyth.

Sign up for our Letter of the Day email.

Posh nosh

PETER Dryburgh (Letters, November 27) must have been served his portion of haggis, neeps and potatoes in a good Edinburgh restaurant. In Glasgow, his pile of unpleasant sludge would have been described on the menu as haggis, neeps and tatties.

David Miller, Milngavie.