How strong is Scotland’s

Another view on a troubled time

DAVID PRATT relates what happened to Palestinian Khaled Amoudi and his family when they were made homeless during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war (The six day war 50 Years On, The World, June 4).

When many survivors of the Holocaust understandably no longer wanted to live in Europe, after the horrors they had experienced and decided to move to the home of their ancestors, Arab countries surrounding Israel encouraged the Arabs living there to leave their homes, as a temporary measure, so they could drive the Jews into the sea. That is the “welcome” Holocaust survivors received. It was not the Jewish people who arrived who drove them off the land, but the Arabs themselves who encouraged them to leave, only things didn’t turn out as they planned; they didn’t manage to drive all the Jews into the sea after all.

In 1967, yet again, Arab leaders in the countries surrounding Israel boasted that they would drive all the Jews into the sea. Again, things did not go as they planned. Had the Arabs chosen to live in peace with Israel, no land would have been “occupied”.

A large number of Jewish Israelis are refugees, many from Arab countries, having left because of persecution. Those who call for boycotts of Israeli goods and take part in antiIsrael demonstrations never seem to take part in similar calls for boycotts or demonstrations against many other countries, China for example, in spite of their shocking treatment of the people of Tibet, as well as the horrific torture and persecution of the Falun Gong in their own country.

It is likely that most of those so condemning of Israel have many Israeli products in their homes. Also, if they need any life-saving drugs, will they boycott those from Israel, as many are produced there?