Reply to Ruth Dudley-Edwards

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Ronit Lentin

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/ruth-dudley-edwards/ruth-dudley-edwards-gazabound-vessel-really-a-ship-of-fools-2806080.html

Godwin’s Law. That’s what it’s called – the tendency for internet debates to degenerate into arguments where one side labels the other a Nazi. And so we have a contribution to the Israel/Palestine issue akin to an angrily typed hatemail at the fag end of one of these online brawls –Ruth Dudley Edwards saying that the people on the Irish Ship to Gaza supporting Palestinian rights are antisemites, like the Nazi-loving Irish of her youth. Continue reading “Reply to Ruth Dudley-Edwards”

Crisis racism and ‘cultural circumcision’

,
Ronit Lentin

Like everyone else, I was appalled by the revelations of Prime Time Investigates on Monday 30 May about the impact of the cuts on disabled people and their carers. So appalled that I felt unable to watch the whole programme. I was distressed by the stories of the parents of a Downs’ Syndrome boy going hungry because the mother’s carer’s allowance was cut by €16 a week; of the woman who had to wait more than a year for an MRI scan leading to her back deteriorating beyond the possibility of operation; and of the mother who had to carry her adolescent son upstairs for a bath – the son’s scoliosis beyond operative repair because the waiting list was simply too long. Continue reading “Crisis racism and ‘cultural circumcision’”

Dear Mr Obama, before your visit to Ireland

Ronit Lentin

obama-and-palestine-2Dear Mr Obama

I supported you when you ran against Clinton for the Democratic nomination and when you ran against McCain for president, not merely because it was refreshing to have an African American president, but also because you struck me as bright, progressive, and intent on making the US and the world a better place. I was impressed with your promises to close Guantanamo Bay Cuba, end American involvement in Iraq, and with your apparent determination to bring about a solution to the question of Palestine. Continue reading “Dear Mr Obama, before your visit to Ireland”