I'm not going to refute Jake Beaumont's letter re: Palestine, rather I'll give you the tools in the form of a reading list to do it for yourselves.
I was always aware as a policeman that there was more than one side to a story. Maybe this strapping six-foot man had a good reason for beating up his five-foot girlfriend. Maybe it was self defense.
So I listened to her story, then I interviewed him, then I looked for (and this was a very important part of my task) credible, reliable witnesses, and of course a motive.
So here are your witnesses:
Ilan Pappe, Israeli historian, educator; Shlomo Sand, Israeli emeritus prof. of history; Norman Finkelstein, U.S. political scientist & author; Noam Chomsky, U.S. linguist, philosopher, social critic; Uri Avnery, Israeli writer, peace activist; Gideon Levy, Israeli journalist, author; Amira Hass, Israeli journalist, author; Naomi Klein, Canadian author, social activist; Avi Lewis, Canadian journalist, film maker; Richard Goldstone, well known jurist author of The Goldstone Report a UN-funded commission on the invasion of Gaza.
It should be noted that all of the Americans are Jewish and/or Israeli; Robert Fisk, well known journalist, author; John Pilger, journalist, film maker; Chris Hedges, well known journalist, author, social critic.
Breaking the Silence, an organization of Israeli soldiers and veterans speaking out against the occupation; B'tselem, an Israeli peace organization; Gush Shalom, an Israeli peace organization; Read of the Sabra and Shatila massacre or the murder of American citizen Rachel Corey; the siege of Gaza, the obscene invasions of Gaza; the principled stand of The United Church of Canada re: the BDS movement; EAPPI, a World Council of Churches organization to mainly assist Palestinian children trying to get to school.
Now for the motive: very obvious, the theft of Palestinian land which has been ongoing since 1948 and the ridding of the whole of Israel/Palestine of all Arabs.
Eddie Johnson
Prince George
