I read Howard Jacobson’s response to Jonathan Glazer’s Oscars speech (Another Voice, 15 March) with interest, but also with a kind of weary sorrow. Behind Jacobson’s finely wrought arguments, I detect an indifference to the pain our fellow Jews have inflicted on Palestinians in the past 75 years. My revulsion on hearing of the 7 October attacks does not eclipse my dismay about Israeli oppression of the Palestinians: the land grabs, the domicide, the killings. Full disclosure: I’m the child of Holocaust survivors.
I am sure readers of this paper are familiar with the human rights abuses committed in the occupied territories by both the Israeli army and illegal settlers. As for the carnage in Gaza, in this latest and most ferocious assault on the Strip: well, I suppose one can always turn off the TV and radio, can dismiss these “alleged” atrocities as Hamas propaganda. Deep down, though, I envy Jacobson. How fortunate he is, to feel able donnishly to analyse Glazer’s language, rather than feeling – and expressing – a visceral horror and shame. We Jews, of all people, should know better.
Vera Lustig, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey
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