Sir, – Chief Rabbi Yoni Wieder’s appeal for dialogue between Irish people and Israelis is both reasonable and welcome (“All the good that might have come from Ireland v Israel has been lost”, Opinion, October 3rd). Yet his article largely sidesteps the question at the heart of the controversy.
The calls for sporting sanctions did not arise because Irish people are unwilling to meet Israelis, listen to Israelis or recognise their humanity. They arose because of profound concerns about the actions of the Israeli state and the devastating human consequences of the war in Gaza.
By framing the debate primarily as a lost opportunity for conversation, the article focuses on the reaction while largely overlooking the cause.
Dialogue is important, but it cannot substitute for accountability nor can it be detached from the circumstances that prompt demands for action.
RM Block
Many people who support engagement with Israelis also believe that international sporting bodies should apply their rules consistently. That is the issue under debate, not whether ordinary people should talk to one another.
Human contact builds understanding. It does not remove the obligation to confront difficult realities.
By reframing a question of state accountability as a question of interpersonal understanding, the article sidesteps the very issue that gave rise to the controversy. – Yours, etc,
STEVE RAWSON,
Killester,
Dublin 5.
Sir, – Chief Rabbi Yoni Wieder wrote a considered and temperate article, which you published on Saturday.
It was a welcome and reasoned comment on the dilemma that faced Irish soccer followers and the correctness or otherwise of the Football Association of Ireland’s and the team’s handling of a very difficult situation.
It did not address the root cause of the unease, and often the condemnation, that an apparent majority of the Irish people feel about the retribution wreaked on Gaza after the slaughter wrought by Hamas on October 7th, 2023.
In that attack by Hamas, according to Wikipedia, at least 1,195 people were killed. These included at least 828 civilians of whom 36 were children, 71 foreign nationals and at least 367 members of the Israeli security forces.
The retribution that followed under Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s plans led in Gaza to 73,922 deaths, of which 21,638 were children.
As a teacher online of English, before Covid for the Hands Up Project, I got to know a woman in Gaza and her family of six.
Whenever I could, I was in contact with my friend as she was “hunted” by the Israeli government, from her bombed out apartment, through six tented accommodations across hundreds of kilometres.
I was in touch with her when her sister’s family was wiped out when they were bombed into the rubble and heard her tearful account of how the IDF soldiers “shooted” at the civilians frantically digging to try to reach any survivors.
Would that Chief Rabbi Wieder stand up and condemn the Israeli government’s handling of the Palestinian issue.
A really brave statesman-like rabbi is needed to lead Israelis out of the wilderness where their government has failed.
If I have missed any such expressions of opinion from Chief Rabbi Wieder, I apologise. – Yours, etc,
FERGUS JORDAN,
Greystones,
Co Wicklow.
