Sir, – Whereas some of the charges brought against pupils from Coláiste na Sceilge in Cahersiveen by an Israeli journalist appear exaggerated, they deserve to be promptly investigated and her claims either refuted or accepted (“School rejects Israeli journalist’s anti-Semitism claim”, Home News, January 31st). In the year of The Gathering it is important that Ireland remains a welcoming place to tourists from all backgrounds.
To agree in some part with Sarah Honig however, most Irish people have little or no knowledge of the evolution of the conflict in Israel-Palestine.How many Irish people know that it was Israel’s neighbours who started all three wars in which most of the now disputed land was annexed? How many Irish people know that most Israelis are descendants of Jewish-Arabs persecuted, robbed, and then expelled from Muslim-Arab countries in the 1950s? One cannot simply view Israel as the perennial villain and the Palestinians/Arabs as automatic victims.
As with all conflicts, including Northern Ireland, the fog of war allows only the naive, ignorant, or belligerent to assert a clear view point. Any work on this conflict undertaken in schools should attempt to give a balanced view of the creation of the state of Israel, the (few)rights and (all too many)wrongs of current settlement policy notwithstanding. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – The Jerusalem Post has its eye on Cahersiveen – and well it might, for surely the westernmost town on the Eurasian continent, secure behind the great wall of the McGillycuddy Reeks with the whole of the North Atlantic at its mercy, poses a serious threat to world peace. It is well known that the town has a secret nuclear capability and threatens not only the inhabitants of Valentia, Cape Clear and the Aran Islands but also far-distant Tír na nÓg.
It is widely whispered in Kerry that in the biology lab of Coláiste na Sceilge a group of clever schoolchildren are well on the way to breeding back the leprechaun.
As the endearing little nuisances spread through the world their mischievous tricks and witty banter will render workers everywhere helpless with laughter and empty boardrooms of economists, accountants and bankers, who will rush off in all directions chasing rainbows and pots of gold.
World productivity will plummet.
Clearly the Jerusalem Post has done the world a service. Will the schoolchildren of Cahersiveen jump up and down crying, “Bully! Bully!”? I think not. They will, no doubt, do as the tsar of Russia wisely did in the face of a severe tongue-lashing from the Skibbereen Eagle: maintain a dignified, enduring silence. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Principal John O’Connor of Coláiste na Sceilge in Cahersiveen denies that his school has shown any pro-Palestinian bias (Home News, January 31st).
However, the school, by apparently excluding the Israeli narrative altogether and by pushing solely the Palestinian one – even to the extent of having its pupils fundraise for the latter – is patently demonstrating pronounced one-sided bias against Israel. Such an unacceptable lack of balance is not merely a false representation of the longstanding complex Israel-Palestine conflict to pupils: it dishonours the meaning of the word education. – Yours, etc,