Sir, – Reading the Israeli Ambassador's response (October 7th) to Mike Murphy's opinion piece "Degradation of Palestinians shocking to witness" (Opinion & Analysis, September 30th), one could be forgiven for thinking that Israel has been the victim of Palestinian occupation for the past 50 years.
The Ambassador asserts that Mike Murphy’s straightforward testimony is littered with mistruths and the worst slurs against the State of Israel. But the Ambassador’s fellow citizens are equally trenchant in their criticism of actions by the State he represents.
If the Ambassador would like to acquaint himself with the daily abuses practised by the IDF against Palestinians, I recommend that he visits the website of Breaking the Silence, where Israeli soldiers who served in the occupied territories have the courage to denounce the oppression practised by the State of Israel against the Palestinian population.
The Ambassador writes: “Unfortunately, the current Palestinian leadership seems to lack the courage to recognise Israel’s right to exist”. On September 9th, 1993, the office of Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin received a letter from the chairman of the PLO Yasser Arafat, saying: “The PLO recognises the right of the State of Israel to exist in peace and security”. He can read the letter on the site of the Israeli ministry of foreign affairs. Moreover, President Mahmoud Abbas in his speech to the UN General Assembly on September 20th, 2017, said: “We recognised the State of Israel on the 1967 borders”. It is frustrating to argue with people who know the facts, but who insist on denying them.
Finally, on behalf of the people of Palestine, I would like to thank Mike Murphy for helping to bring the world’s attention to the conditions of daily life that Palestinians living under Israeli occupation have to endure. I invite anyone who has doubts about the validity of his account to follow his example and visit Palestine. – Yours, etc,
AHMAD ABDELRAZEK,
Ambassador of
the State of Palestine,
Mission of the
State of Palestine,
Upper Leeson Street
Dublin 4.