The Pethan Makkanannan’s article has been affected at the time as a correspondent in Jerusalem over the past four years (I am worried about starting to find it normal. But I never did – what I learned as a correspondent in Jerusalem, the guardian, May 29). Her experience in feeling a “crazy cognitive dissonance” in Tel Aviv/Jaffa from seeing people “outside, doing Pilates, and walking, as if everything was fine-when I was only 50 km away, on the same MID extension, the open prison was exactly what I felt when I visited Jerusalem for the first time in 2018 after spending time in the West Bank.
I decided to take my young family there to explain to them as my Palestinian father grew up under the British state and know whether we could find the house that I lost in 1948. But I was also keen to make sure that my children had a balanced point of view and understand the entire story, and educate them about what the Jews went through.
I came from Jordan through Bethlehem and Ramallah, and I was not affected by the generosity of the Palestinians I met, despite living under very difficult circumstances, they were great hosts, and they called my family to chat and share cooked food at home. But access to Jerusalem from the Radda West BankWhere Palestinians are treated like livestock, which was formulated by the wall and multiple inspection points, was a great contrast. After walking a few steps away across the center of Jerusalem with its shiny stores, surrounded by people who live in the best of their lives, collapsed and cried in the injustice of everything.
He grew up in London, people sometimes tell me that they were on vacation Israel. “Were you?” They will ask. “It is great.” They did not know my background, but I left shocked because they only saw one aspect of it.
What I loved in Bethan’s article is that over the past four years, she overwhelmed herself in life there and deeply felt the sites of both Israelis and Palestinians. If we will achieve progress and reach a fair result, we must put ourselves in each other’s shoes and understand the depth of each other’s experiences.
Alexandra Lucas
London
Jonathan Friedland describes Hamas’s actions on October 7, 2023 as “slaughter”, while Israel’s bombing in Gaza has since then is just “killing” Palestinians (The biblical hatred overwhelms both sides in the Gaza conflict – and blind them to the mind, May 23). The difference in the anger that was filmed in these words reflects the lack of parity between an Israeli and Palestinian life that was at the heart of the conflict from the beginning.
Chris Matthews
London
