Never again for the children’s sake

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/01/never-again-childrens-sake

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Children are always the innocent victims of war. In the case of the assault on Gaza (Editorial, 1 August) they have not just been the victims, but the targets. Seven out of 10 deaths have been civilians and two out of 10 have been children. And they have died horribly, in their schools, in hospital beds and while sleeping. The Israelis tell us that these deaths are accidents. Just one example of too many that gives the lie to that. At the Abu Hussein school in Jabaliya refugee camp, survivors said the school was hit by a barrage of eight shells in 15 minutes. Children tried to escape by running from room to room only to be killed or injured by the next shell. Besieged and locked in for years and with half of Gaza’s 1.8 million inhabitants under 18, we must make reality of those two words, “never again”.David WilsonCo-founder, War Child

• Well over 10% of the rockets fired by Hamas at Israel in the last three weeks have exploded inside Gaza. As your newspaper accept without inquiry the Palestinian fatality statistics given by the Palestinian ministry of health in Gaza, ie Hamas, it behoves you to demand clarification of how many fatalities were caused directly or indirectly by such misfirings, particularly of civilians, including children. By indirect I mean explosions of arms stocks in Gazan schools etc.Peter SimpsonPinner, Middlesex

• Gaza became independent a long time ago. Wouldn’t it have benefited the population more if the huge funds that were given by the EU and other countries had been used constructively, to build up the economy, create research centres and laboratories, provide tech training, open libraries and cultural centres, instead of merely focusing on destruction? There could have been a flourishing and prosperous community and probably already a Palestinian state a long time ago. Economic exchange with Israel could have replaced the exchange of hostilities and hatred. Construction, manufacture and production of a peaceful economy is the only way forward to improve the lives of the Palestinian population. To use an old biblical phrase, swords should be turned into ploughshares.Professor Catherine HezserProfessor of Jewish Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies

• Muslims in Britain and France must marvel at the seeming lack of care or sympathy offered by their respective governments. Here, where journalists and pundits with opposing views endlessly debate their rhetorical positions, no journal, august or otherwise, has yet expressed its outrage by openly demanding from the leader of the opposition that he makes the position of his party unambiguously clear regarding this horror.

In these countries, there may be among their Muslim citizens increasingly disenfranchised, radicalised youths who may soon conclude that nothing they can say or do will have any effect on the viewpoint taken either by the EU or the US. In 2013, an Afghan war veteran was murdered on the streets of Britain by two men who claimed that their actions were an act of war. Whether the effects of distant wars creep ever closer or not, the governments of Europe may be ignoring this conflict at their peril.Al-Sharif Abdullah bin Al-HusseinLondon

• Andrew McCulloch (Letters, 30 July) could not be more misguided in his analogy between Israel and Nazi Germany. Is he not aware that Hamas is a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, whose founding ideology, as enshrined in its charter, is pure genocidal antisemitism, directly inspired by Nazism. German money funded the MB, which organised incitement and violence against the Copts and Jews of Egypt throughout the 30s. That Egypt is today virtually “Judenrein” would gladden the heart of any Hamas supporter. Hamas remains totalitarian, anti-gay, anti-women, anti-non-Muslim, reactionary. Aren’t these values antithetical to everything the Guardian stands for?Lyn JuliusLondon

• Didn’t the Jews under siege in the Warsaw ghetto dig a network of tunnels? Wasn’t their attempts at resistance and survival a source of pride to Jewish people everywhere? Aren’t there books such as Mila 18 hailing their ingenuity and bravery in building the tunnels and defying the Gestapo attempts to control them? How can Israel now justify all the destruction and deaths because the Palestinians have also dug tunnels after being under siege for seven years? When will the world take on Israel’s hypocrisy and double standards and stop this slaughter?Judi OshowoleLondon

• It must be time to say the unsayable and talk to Hamas. The lessons from Northern Ireland are clear – we need to negotiate with all the parties involved in the war, even with those some call terrorists. Surely the EU can take the lead?Helen LewisEpsom, Surrey

Put Gaza’s children before politics, says Vanessa Redgrave