Madam, - Déaglán de Bréadún's interview with visiting Israeli academic Prof Asher Susser (The Irish Times, February 14th) left many stones unturned.
Prof Susser, who was born in South Africa, claims he "left it because it was an apartheid state". In that event one wonders why he chose to emigrate to Israel of all places, which continued to support apartheid South Africa long after other purported democracies had abandoned it, and even sought to assist it in its quest for nuclear weapons.
Prof Susser "strongly rejected the comparisons frequently made between Israel today and South Africa under the apartheid regime". It should have been pointed out to him that this comparison has been made by, among others, such distinguished South African veterans of the anti-apartheid struggle as Bishop Tutu, Nelson Mandela, UN special rapporteur John Dugard and government minister Ronnie Kasrils. Indeed, in a lecture to the London Institute of Education in 2005, the latter - who is Jewish - said that "the situation for Arabs in Israel and Palestine is far worse than that of the blacks in what was apartheid South Africa".
Prof Susser might have been reminded that 93 per cent of land ownership within Israel is reserved for Jews, and that only 8 per cent of Israeli university students and 1 per cent of academics are Arabs, although they constitute 20 per cent of Israel's population.
This is without even mentioning the Occupied Territories, where Israel's notorious barrier - known to many as "the Apartheid Wall" and built within the Territories rather than along the internationally recognised border (the "Green Line") - not only separates Palestinians from illegal Israeli colonisers but also from each other: children from their schools, doctors from their patients, farmers from their lands.
In defending this structure, Prof Susser fails to mention that in July 2004 the International Court of Justice declared it to be illegal.
In condemning the 61 Irish academics who issued a boycott call last September, Prof Susser trots out the usual accusation of selectivity: "I've never heard them talking about boycotting Sudan. . ." While it is refreshing to note that Prof Susser acknowledges the kinship between the Israeli state and Sudan's genocidal regime, it might have been pointed out to him that the EU doesn't treat Sudan as if it were a European country when it comes to offering funds for academic research, which is the case with Israel. This was the central point made by the academics in question. - Yours, etc,
RAYMOND DEANE,
Ireland Palestine
Solidarity Campaign,
Dame Street,
Dublin 2.
Madam, - The destruction of the European Jews during World War II was not only a physical elimination but also a cultural amputation, a great loss that Europe might never overcome. If it is indeed true that Aosdána will shortly be asked to vote on a motion arguing for a cultural boycott of Israel (as Fred Johnson asserted in his letter of February 14th), may I suggest that anybody who argues for such a cultural boycott is arguing for intellectual suicide?
I would be amazed if Aosdána should find such a motion even worth discussing and I wonder whether it is high time to pull the plug and prevent such nonsense from happening. There are plenty of other cultural activities that need State support and that would make much better use of taxpayers' money. - Yours, etc,
Dr ANDREAS HESS,
School of Sociology,
UCD,
Dublin 4.