Letters to the editor: Open letter to Iceland envoy

Open letter to Iceland envoy

Dear Ambassador to the UK,

I’d like to congratulate your son – Hatari’s drummer Einar – for being such a polite and intelligent young man.

Your boy knows how to behave well as a guest in someone else’s country, taking their hospitality and then insulting them. Is it Icelandic tradition to spit in someone’s face in this way?

Your child’s willingness to fall for propaganda without wanting to hear another narrative, shows a remarkable single mindedness. And his courage in waving that Palestinian scarf leaves me speechless and full of admiration. Waving an Israeli or LGBT flag in Gaza would really show just how truly courageous he is.

He is obviously a proud Icelander, an inheritor of your country’s traditional antisemitism.

For instance, in 1938, when the country was still an autonomous territory under Danish trusteeship, it legislated to prohibit entry to Jewish refugees and to expel the few hundred Jews who had taken refuge there.

Iceland also gave refuge to the Estonian Nazi war criminal Evald Mikson, and it took the country’s government took more than 10 years after Nazi hunter Ephraim Zuroff’s initial appeals to set up a commission to him.

I would boycott Icelandic goods if, like Israel, you actually produced anything worth boycotting. I can happily live without both herring and cod.

I await your comments.

Ruth Leveson, By email

Don’t forget the ‘few’ Zionists

I refer to your article on page three of last week’s edition with the headline: ‘Demo is told Jewish groups are in the gutter.’

You showed a hateful photograph of the protest but made no mention at all about the brave 28 Zionists, me among them, who stood up to 2,000 haters, underminded the march from the very beginning and waved Israeli flags, sung Hebrew songs and da.

Surely this is a positive sign that some Jewish – and non-Jewish – people stood up to be counted on that afternoon.

Warren Grynberg , By email

Gaza film Faux outrage

When Palestinians instinctively use the word ‘Jew’ for ‘Israeli’ they are accused of antisemitism. But when Israelis use the word ‘Jew’ as a substitute for ‘Israeli’, there isn’t outrage. Why not?

David Chesler, Edgware

Blair wrong on Labour

Tony Blair’s advice to vote Labour at the election for the European Parliament is extremely irresponsible since it simply empowers Jeremy Corbyn and his extremists.

While he was leader he did precious little to rid that party of its antisemitic rot.

Any public figure who is genuinely concerned about the rise of Jew-hatred in this country would advise voters not to touch Labour with a barge-pole until it exorcises its demon.

Yisroel Davis, NW11

BBC might have fallen foul of ihra definition

You report (Jewish News, 16 May) that “The BBC has defended its translation of the Arabic word Yehudi as Israeli, in the subtitles in at least five instances, in its documentary, One Day in Gaza.

It might have feared that translating accurately what Bader Saleh said in Arabic as they encourage you to rip a Jew’s head off might have been deemed Islamophobic, something the BBC would want to avoid at all costs.

Its claim that its version ‘is both accurate and true to the speakers’ intentions’ demonstrates clearly that it finds the distinction between Jews and Israelis insignificant, which would itself appear to fall foul of the IHRA definition
of antisemitism.

Martin D. Stern, Salford

Seeking Private M. Ginsburg

AJEX is seeking information from any family of a soldier 7387115 Pte M. Ginsberg, who served with the RAMC in the Second World War.

If you know anything, email me at martin.sugarman@yahoo.co.uk

Martin Sugarman, AJEX Archives

Brexit nightmare has put Corbyn in prime position

Labour is ever more obsessed with denying Israel’s right to exist.

With the Conservatives making a complete hash of Brexit, the nightmare of a Labour victory at the next general election becomes a distinct possibility.

The thought of Jeremy Corbyn who for a £3 special offer initiation fee has attracted around him many a like-minded persons, which could well see him leading this cult into Number 10 fills me with dread.

If the thought of Corbyn as prime minister with foreign secretary Emily Thornberry and home secretary Diane Abbott doesn’t have every UK Jew searching for their passports, nothing will.

Stephen Vishnick, Tel Aviv