APROPOS the letter ‘Live and let live’ (Nov 24). The State of Israel is the result of a Zionist movement officially started in Basel, Switzerland in 1897 with the purpose of creating a state for the Jews in Palestine, which at the time was under the Ottomans.

Through the Balfour declaration the British government pledged to establish a home for the Jewish people, although there was an almost negligible Jewish population in Palestine.Under British rule, Jews from Europe and other parts of the world started migrating to Palestine.

This created resentment among the Palestinians who were mostly Muslim and a sizable number, Christians.

In 1947, the United Nations approved partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states and Ben Gurion declared the ‘independence’ of Israel in May 1948. For Britain to offer Palestine to the Jews was morally wrong.

The UN which is supposed to be impartial, sided with the West and the Jews, and the Jewish side was given more territory than the Palestinian people.

Nearly a million Palestinians were driven from their land into refugee camps in neighourboring countries where most of them still live. When the Palestinians started an organised struggle to get their land back, they were and still are branded terrorists.

There have been numerous massacres of Palestinians at the hands of Israeli troops, vigilantes and local Jews since the creation of Israel. The massacre of Palestinian refugees at Sabra and Shatila refugee camp near Beirut during the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon stands out.

How would a person react to someone occupying his ancestral property and then someone with almost no or very little knowledge of the fact to come along and preach ‘live and let live’.

If ‘live and let live’ is so simple then the anti-encroachment drive in many parts of Karachi and other parts of the country should be stopped immediately.

Syed Muhammad Ali Naqvi
Karachi

Published in Dawn, December 13th, 2018