Re: “Canada supporting apartheid in Israel, says activist” (St. Albert Gazette, Feb. 4).
It is true that Palestinians have a difficult life in the Middle East. In the West Bank, they are ruled by Fatah, which incites them to hate their neighbours rather than forge peace; in Gaza, they are ruled by Hamas, which spends international aid funds on building rockets and tunnels instead of schools and hospitals; and in Lebanon, Syria and elsewhere, they are kept like pawns in refugee camps as status-less third-class citizens, unable to have normal lives.
But in Israel, where 20 per cent of the population is Arab, they are equal citizens and have the highest standard of living of all Palestinians in the Middle East. When the Palestinian leadership chooses life over death, education over war, and love over hate – only then will a better life for both Arabs and Jews take hold in the Middle East.
Israel is not perfect. Neither is Canada. But what Mr. Halper is selling is a radicalized view that misrepresents reality on the ground.
Avi Benlolo, president and CEO, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies
