BradfordToday and InnisfilToday welcome letters to the editor at [email protected] or via the website. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is in response to a letter about the cancellation of a film screening at the Bradford library, published March 22.
I want to respond to the letter written by Leni Vander Kooy regarding the decision by the Bradford Library to not show a film due to the pressure of a certain group.
I wholeheartedly agree that no censorship should take place and that different sides of all issues should be heard. If the library gives access to its facility to certain groups, it should give access to all groups.
For example: a pro-life group has the same rights as a pro-abortion group to use its facilities for information purposes. The library cannot censor or deny access because of the discomfort of some or threats of violence.
Unfortunately, Leny Vander Kooy, in defence of showing this film, shares misinformation and does not give the whole picture regarding the situation in the Middle East.
I would like to make the following points:
- Historians agree that the kingdom of Israel and Judea existed ca 900 BC in Palestine.
- In 1917, the British Balfour Declaration promised the establishment of a Jewish national home in Ottoman-controlled Palestine.
- In 2005 Israel withdrew from Gaza.
- In 2007 Hamas took over control of Gaza from the Palestinian Authority.
- The goal of Hamas is not the well-being of the people in Gaza but the elimination of all Jews, Article 7 of their charter states: "The day of judgement will not come until Muslims fight the Jews, when the Jews will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say 'O Muslim, O servant of god, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him." (This is not a power struggle but a hatred of the Jewish people.)
- This is what Hamas did on Oct. 6. It brutally killed 1,400 men, women and children. Not soldiers but civilians.
- If Hamas would lay down their arms and commit to living peacefully with Israel, the war (not genocide, but war!) would stop immediately.
- Twice, a two-state solution was agreed on by Israel but rejected by the Palestinian leadership.
These points are also part of this story and should be shared.
Harry deGeus
Newmarket