Your correspondent S Raymond advises me to look up certain information on The Palestine Times and so-called 'Honestreporting.com. The former went out of production in 2007 due to lack of funds and the latter is obviously Israeli biased. S. Raymond tries to paint life in the Gaza strip as some idyllic tourist destination. The only tourists who go there are Israelis to look at the rusty Egyptian tanks and other war trophies! Time magazine reports that 60% of Gaza's 350,000 inhabitants are refugees who lost their land to Israel in 1948. They live on the dole in eight refugee camps, with some being sent support from relatives outside Palestine and Gaza.
S. Raymond might be interested in a photographic display in Wellington. One of the photos shows an Orthodox Jew approaching a bent, elderly Palestinian women. He is seen throwing a cup of coffee in her face as he passes. This symbolises the attitude of most Israelis towards those in Gaza - I say most, not all.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thumbs his nose at anyone who criticises Israeli treatment of Gazans and Palestinians. The United Nations Human Rights Council, who were investigating the killing of nine peace activists and the injuring of 30 others on the Gaza bound aids flotilla, gave their ruling that Israel 'willingly killed and tortured activists” and 'there is clear evidence to support prosecutions”.
It goes without saying that Netanyahu gives his usual response: 'The report ...is as biased and as one-sided as the body that has produced it.” There is little hope for the Gazans and peace when the Israeli Government completely ignores any verdict against them given by the United Nations.
Mary Brooks, Tauranga.