Debate has descended into tit-for-tat rhetoric

THE SCATHING barrage of Zionist attacks on the Weekend Argus letters page (September 24) against one person’s arguments (Terry CrawfordBrowne’s “Israeli technology plunders Palestine and Africa”, Weekend Argus, September 17), regarding Israel’s manipulation of political technology rhetoric, has reduced this discussion to unfortunate levels.

The main issue, with all its legalistic histories and complexities, is how indigenous Palestinians and the State of Israel can live together harmoniously. Wouldn’t that make peaceful transitions in the Middle East more progressive?

Technology for whatever good purpose is neutral, but is also driven by the intentions of its manufacturer. The belligerent reality of land theft and population erasure by Israel’s military occupation and settler expansion, both entities operating against international legal tenets established through UN Resolutions, defy suggestions of Israel’s claimed goodwill towards African nations’ development.

Let’s stop the individual bashing and consider well-documented facts about Palestinian human rights in general, and international resolutions over decades, obligations Israel has skirted. One example is the recently passed “Youth Bill” in Israel which allows for detention of children from 12, deemed “terrorists”, in clear contravention of protection provisions in the 1991 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. An examination of genuine conflict resolutions constitutes a worldwide movement beyond one Terry Crawford-Browne; hence, facts are in order, rather than personal attacks. Otherwise, the Zionist retorts risk sounding like a candidate-bashing Trump-Clinton campaign.