I WOULD like to respond with some well-documented facts to Philip Hancock’s reply on February 10 to my letter of February 3.
He questioned that BDS (Boycott, Divestment And Sanctions) is a non-violent movement. The Palestinian civil society call for BDS (Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions) by 172 organisations in July 2005 explicitly stated: “These non-violent punitive measures should be maintained until Israel meets its obligation to recognise the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international law.”
The Palestinians knew from the South African experience that their struggle for justice would be long and hard.
As Mandela famously said: “Our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.”
Mr Hancock also said that MPs should be targeting countries with far worse HR abuses. Those countries don’t profess to be democracies where all peoples are equal. Israel is a democracy, but only for the Israeli Jewish people.
There are currently more than 50 laws mitigating against the 20 per cent Arab Israelis.
For example, in 2011 the Knesset passed a law that empowers hundreds of local Jewish communities to exclude applicants based on ethnicity or religion, which the Supreme Court upheld in September 2014 – not to mention the brutal occupation in the West Bank and the siege of Gaza.
I continue to campaign for equal rights for everyone, regardless of race or religion.
Judith Hammond
Middle Rank
Bradford on Avon