Let the good and the brave oppose the extremists in Israel

I NOTE with interest the correspondence on Israel (Letters, June 11, 12 & 13) in response to David Pratt’s article (“Now is the moment for world to pressure Israel”, The Herald, June 10). Israel was planning to introduce segregated buses as recently as a few weeks ago and only desisted when it realised how much world condemnation would have been created.

A visit to Israel should include a visit to the remains of the El Wafa hospital in Gaza which was deliberately targeted for destruction in the war last year and which was one of the only long-term care facilities in Gaza. It is still in ruins and had been funded by the international community and several charities.

Now is the time for the good and brave people who are in the territories and Israel to try and overcome the extremists who exist on both sides. G M Service, 31Hamilton Avenue, Glasgow. MYRA Gartshore (Letters, June 13) is correct insofar as far as Israeli marriage law is influenced by Rabbinical religious law and comes into operation where one partner is Jewish. Where one or both partners have converted to Judaism there is no problem. This restriction does not apply to other communities within Israel.

There is no civil marriage in Israel, which means that mixed marriages where one party is Jewish and the other has not converted, as well as marriages between non-religious Jews eschewing a religious ceremony, marry in neighbouring Cyprus and return to Israel where the civil marriage is then legally recognised and fully accepted as a civil, though not religious marriage. That, I’m afraid, is how democracy works in Israel.

Undemocratic? Maybe so, but even in the UK our civil liberties are sometimes affected by religious hangovers. Until recent weeks samesex marriages were banned here ... and previously we hounded and jailed people for engaging in homosexual activity, so please, with respect, do not be so dismissive where Israeli democracy is a little behind the times. M Green, 103 Ayr Road, Newton Mearns.