An affecting account of 4 years in Israel and Palestine | Letters

I used to be so moved through Bethan McKernan’s article on her time because the Guardian’s Jerusalem correspondent during the last 4 years (‘I worried I might start finding it normal. But I never did’ – what I discovered because the Guardian’s Jerusalem correspondent, 29 May). Her revel in of feeling a “maddening cognitive dissonance” in Tel Aviv/Jaffa from seeing other people “out and about, doing pilates, walking their dogs, as if everything was fine – when just 50km down the road, on the same stretch of the Med, was an open-air prison” is strictly how I felt once I first visited Jerusalem in 2018 after spending time within the West Bank.

I had determined to take my younger circle of relatives there to turn them the place my Palestinian father grew up beneath the British Mandate and notice if lets in finding the house he’d misplaced in 1948. But I used to be additionally willing to verify my youngsters had a balanced view and understood the entire tale, teaching them about what the Jewish other people were thru.

I had come from Jordan by means of Bethlehem and Ramallah and been so touched through the generosity of the Palestinians I met who, in spite of dwelling beneath very tricky stipulations, had been such glorious hosts, inviting my circle of relatives in to speak and proportion scrumptious home-cooked meals. But arriving in lush Jerusalem from the barren West Bank, the place Palestinians are handled like farm animals, penned in through the wall and more than one checkpoints, used to be a hanging distinction. After strolling a couple of steps throughout the centre of Jerusalem with its gleaming retail outlets, surrounded through other people ostensibly dwelling their perfect lifestyles, I broke down and cried on the injustice of all of it.

Growing up in London, other people would every so often inform me they had been happening vacation to Israel. “Have you been?” they’d ask. “It’s wonderful.” They didn’t know my background, however I used to be left surprised that they simply noticed one aspect of it.

What I cherished about Bethan’s article is that during the last 4 years she has immersed herself in lifestyles there and deeply felt the positions of each Israelis and Palestinians. If we’re going to make growth and succeed in an excellent result, we need to put ourselves in each and every different’s footwear and deeply perceive each and every different’s reviews.
Alexandra Lucas
London

Jonathan Freedland describes Hamas’s movements on 7 October 2023 as “slaughter”, whilst Israel’s bombardment of Gaza ever since is simply “killing” Palestinians (A biblical hatred is engulfing all sides within the Gaza war – and blinding them to reason why, 23 May). The distinction in outrage portrayed in those phrases displays the loss of equivalence between the lifetime of an Israeli and that of a Palestinian which has been on the middle of the war for the reason that get started.
Chris Matthews
London