Dear Editor,

On Thursday, April 8 you published an article by Patrick Wilmot entitled ‘The Germanification of Israel’.

He writes to describe a Germany of yesterday, the Germany led by Adolf Hitler, which created and executed the Holocaust of World War II. In this genocide some 15 million men, women and children were murdered for a wide variety of excuses created by that regime.

That was Germany of the past, and yes, we should not forget it so that it does not happen again, not in the Sudan, nowhere. He then attempts to attach the horror of genocide to the actions of the people of Israel.

The first ‘misspeak’ in his article is that Jews and Arabs lived peacefully for the past 2,000 years. He seems to have conveniently forgotten that Jews in these lands were of common stock with different religious persuasions. These beliefs caused tensions.

He seems to have forgotten that there was also little peace in these lands over the last two millennia caused by the actions of various empires; Roman, the rise of Islam, Muslim Turks, Crusading Christians, the Ottoman Empire and lastly, the Europeans — the French and English. These latter two nations carved up and created states such as Syria, Jordan and Iraq before and after the last World War, referred to above.

If he had gone back a few hundred years BC, he would have discovered that Jerusalem was largely created by the Jewish king, David. When Mr Wilmot reads that history in the Bible he will discover that Israel today is a state created by many Jews returning to this historic homeland from the Diaspora, joining those who never left.

Let us fast forward to the present time. The most important piece of advice to Mr Wilmot is that when writing about a people he should visit them first. If he visits Israel he would discover that some 30 per cent of the people there are non-Jewish Israelis and if he wishes he can term them as Palestinians, as yet a name without a state.

He will also discover that the majority of Israeli Jews are not of European stock but from Middle Eastern countries, including Iran and those nations that lie along the North African or southern Mediterranean shores. They have taken the opportunity to return to their historic homeland.

Let us suggest that your columnist also visit the former Christian towns of Nazareth and Bethlehem and experience the persecution and “ethnic cleansing” of the historic Christian populations by the Jidhadist Muslims. Then he should visit the Israeli towns along the borders with Gaza which are under almost-daily rocket attacks — attacks which continued for nearly 10 years before Israelis launched the reprisals against the bases that Hamas militants occupy in Gaza. Let him visit the schools and other sites in Gaza where these militants used to stand by while they fired their rockets. He needs to visit Gaza.

Mr Wilmot also speaks to “occupation” and to the “wall”. He depends much on the book he refers to without the critical analysis that a real journalist should have undertaken. He speaks to the so-called illegal Jewish settlements in “occupied” East Jerusalem. Does he understand that both the Jewish Holy sites and Christian Holy sites are mainly in East Jerusalem, once a part of the Turkish Empire and occupied by the Jordanians as a result of the War of 1948?

This was the war in which five Arab states attacked Israel on the day that they declared their independence in keeping with the United Nations resolution. This occupation by the Jordanians resulted in the degradation of these sites and the exclusion of Christians and Jews from visiting and worshipping at them. So what is occupied and by whom? Furthermore, the Oslo Accords of 1993 recognised that Jerusalem should not be divided.

With reference to the wall, Mr Wilmot again needs to travel. He should try visiting the Mexican border with the USA, the Great Wall of China, and if he really wants to visit national boundary walls, let us know, there are dozens more, longer and taller.

Peace between today’s Israelis and the Muslim world in lands that were, up to the last century, a part of the Ottoman Empire and the area that was provisionally later called Palestina, will come. It will be achieved when Israel’s right to exist is accepted by these neighbours.

Let us remember that Jordan and Egypt have peace treaties with Israel and so it is not only possible, it has been achieved. Let us remember too, that peace can only come when nation states clean up their education systems and educate their children with love and not hate.

Anytime your columnist wishes to be educated with hate we can supply him with many books on the subject collected from Madrases and other such schools. Peace comes with love, not hate. One love.

Ainsley Henriques

Hon Consul of Israel