Questions of identity and safety for Muslims and Jews | Letters

Daniel Sevitt, Dr Susannah Cramer-Greenbaum and Dr Franz Baumann respond to articles by Zara Mohammed, Dave Rich and Arwa Mahdawi

I recognise and empathise with the anguish expressed by Zara Mohammed (British Muslims deserve safety and belonging. War in Gaza has made us fear we’ll lose both, 7 October). Her sense that she and other Muslims are being policed metaphorically and literally for identifying with family and friends abroad feels utterly real to me. Growing up as a Jew in London, my response to my own sense of never quite belonging enough, in the eyes of some of my peers, was to emigrate to Israel in the late 1990s.

I am proud to be an Israeli to the exact extent that I oppose the current government, support our army of conscripts and reservists, and pray for a speedy and peaceful resolution for all. Zionism, the belief in the rights of Jews to self-determination, only makes sense to me if I am equally supportive of the rights of Palestinians to self-determination. Zionism is incompatible with Benjamin Netanyahu’s intransigence on recognition of a Palestinian state. Anti-Zionism is incompatible with anti-racism.

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