Illiberal stance

I also wasn’t at all surprised to learn that the Friends of Israel enjoyed 80 per cent support in the Tory Party.

However, I expected something better from the Lib Dems.

I’d assumed that any party with ‘Liberal’ in its name would have insinctively shown sympathy for the Palestinians who, since 1948, have been the victims of an outrageous wrong.

In 1948, when the British Mandate in Palestine ended and the occupation of Palestine ceased, the Palestinians were denied their natural right to sovereignty in order to legitimise the creation of the sovereign state of Israel.

Given the public sympathy for the European Jews as victims of the Holocaust, it wasn’t too difficult to transfer the role of villains from the Nazis to (quite unjustifiably) the Palestinians.

I am entirely on the side of the Palestinians and I would hope that any party that I intended to support would agree with me.

I had hoped that party would be the Lib Dems whom I have supported for many years. Then I found their Friends of Israel website on the Internet.

My point is this: one is either a liberal or one is not a liberal. You cannot simultaneously advocate liberal policies in this country, while supporting a regime as illiberal as that in Israel.

They are being liberal to their own kind, but, like all right wing parties, illiberal to everyone else.

As far as the Lib Dems are concerned, I have no intention of ending my support for Dr Evan Harris (it wouldn’t matter that much if I did). But, on the other hand, I have no idea of how far the malignant cancer of Friends of Israel has spread within the party.

The best I can hope for is that this support comes from a few nutters who shouldn’t be in the Lib Dem Party anyway, and that I can continue to support Dr Harris with a relatively clear conscience.

G L Samson Preston Road Abingdon