Madam, - I don't think I have ever been as angered or disturbed by a photograph as I was by the recent one of the young Palestinian boy strapped to the bonnet of an Israeli jeep as a form of human shield (World News, April 24th). My thanks to your correspondent Nuala Haughey for highlighting this outrageous incident.
It is increasingly clear that Ariel Sharon and his government have behaved cruelly and extremely against the Palestinian community. They like to accuse others of anti-Semitism whenever they are criticised but they are missing the point. This has nothing to do with religion (or their apparent lack of it) and everything to do with their murderous regime.
Fifty-two former British diplomats recently wrote an open letter to Tony Blair criticising his and the US's support for the Israeli government. Bertie Ahern claimed in a recent interview on the BBC World Service to be unhappy with how the Israelis are treating the Palestinians. I urge him to go further and as current EU president, use his position to gather a Europe-wide condemnation of the Sharon government's flagrant disregard of the human rights of their suffering neighbours. - Yours, etc.,
FIONNUALA D'ARCY,
Potsdam,
Germany.