There is one unfortunate phrase in your otherwise excellent editorial on Israel-Palestine (4 July). You say the residents of Jenin’s refugee camp are the children and grandchildren of those who “lost their lands to the new state of Israel in 1948”. In reality, this is a euphemism for “were deliberately driven out of their lands to make space for the new state”. The ethnic cleansing of upwards of three-quarters of the Palestinians in what would become Israel was deliberate and violent, and should not be whitewashed.
Richard Barnes
Chair, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions UK
• So, Tony Blair’s latest messianic pronouncement, in the face of the obvious catastrophe of the UK’s 40-year disastrous experiment with privatisation, is that the NHS needs more private involvement (Report, 5 July). Has this old war criminal been living under a Bush?
Amanda Baker
Edinburgh
