Letter: As a unionist, I believe that what is happening in Gaza is too serious to be misused in our petty political squabbles here in Northern Ireland

I was surprised by the tone of the article on the Palestinian crisis by Cillian McGrattan (‘Irish nationalism's sense of victimhood is buttressed by spurious claims about Israel,’ April 5) who seemed to be using the horror of Gaza to attack Sinn Fein and People Before Profit who have publicly quarrelled over the boycott tactic.

As a unionist, I have no interest in defending SF but what is happening in Gaza is too serious to allow the issue to be misused in our petty squabbles. We in Northern Ireland still remember atrocities when 10 or more were killed on one day but Gaza suffers much worse on a daily basis.

Mr McGrattan seeks to imply that those of us attending Palestine marches are ignoring human rights abuses across the globe and only focusing on Israel because of antisemitism. He seems to forget that Gaza is the only human rights abuse where our government (the British govt) is supporting a continuation of the killing and is supplying weapons to enable Israel to continue attacking Gaza. I know Mr McGrattan would claim that Israel are fighting just against Hamas and not against the Palestinian people but when you bomb a people’s homes and kill their children you make them your enemy.

Mr McGrattan cited the fact that the ‘target population’ had grown exponentially as evidence that Israel could not be trying to commit genocide, a point that is reminiscent and no more credible than David Starkey’s claim in 2020 that slavery could not have been genocide because of the growth of the black population.

Mr McGrattan repeatedly throughout the article tries to link criticism of Israel and antisemitism but he knows Israel does not represent all Jews. At today’s Palestine peace gathering outside Belfast City Hall we heard an impassioned plea for peace from a Jewish lady. No-one in Northern Ireland would any longer believe a ‘Protestant State for a Protestant People’ is a stable model for a country – is it possible that a Jewish State for a Jewish People is inherently unstable, and that a different model should be tried?

I was born in Ireland and not Palestine, so it is not for me to decide the future of the region. However, it seems astonishing to me that we unionists are not offering friendly advice to Israel based on our own 30-year experience that tit-for-tat killing does not lead to peace. At one time we feared we would be involved in an all-out war such as Palestine is enduring now, but we found a peaceful solution in 1998 by having the courage to enter talks with those who supported the murder of our community.

It is my hope that Israel will focus on freeing the hostages, setting free the Palestinian prisoners and making peace with those with whom it must eventually share the land of Palestine.

Arnold Carton, Belfast BT6