Recently we published Irish teacher Daire Louise O’Dowd’s view of visiting Palestine and Israel.
Read More: An Irish woman in the Palestinean West Bank - some harsh realities
Her views were hotly contested by many readers. A sample below:
“I recently read Miss O'Dowd's article in IrishCentral. I hope and trust that you will print an apology to your readers. Miss O'Dowd's lies, inaccuracies and ignorance of basic history is appalling. Her grasp of historical facts - even about the British mandate - her understanding of geography and numbers is manipulative and just plain wrong. And to print her lies and inaccuracies without fact-checking shows a distinct lack of editorial accountability and integrity.
IrishCentral and Miss O'Dowd have manipulated your readership and contributed to the lies of the BDS campaign. A lot of harm will come if you do not issue a warning with this article and correct her lies - tell the truth about Israel. There's a lot wrong with the country but as a democracy, everyone - Jew, Christian and Arab, men and women, gay or straight - have a vote and are free to criticize the government. Show me an Arab state where that is possible? I urge you to issue an apology for Miss O'Dowd's article. Give the facts and correct her historical inaccuracies.
Yours faithfully,
M. Austen
"Thank you for your invitation to publish my comments (attached) on Ms Daire Louise O'Dowd's article about her travels in the Palestinian Territories, and I have followed the editorial guidelines in your email to me.
HonestReporting is a respected news-monitoring organization and has already published a reply to Ms O'Dowd's piece. HonestReporting's rebuttal highlights Ms O'Dowd's inaccuracies and prejudices in placing the blame for the plight of the Palestinians on Israel alone and for seeking to punish Israel alone.
Mr Raul Hilberg, in his seminal work: "The Destruction of the Jews of Europe", tables the direct correspondence between Christian Canonical Laws (beginning in 4th CE) and the Nazi measures against Jews on matters of inter-marriage, social intercourse, employment and holding office, destruction of Jewish writings and places of worship, punitive taxes and laws, economic boycott, exile, pogroms, culminating in the industrial murder of six million Jews in Nazi hands.
From Wikipedia: "In the early 21st century, it has been posited that a "new antisemitism" has emerged, in Europe and elsewhere, emanating simultaneously from the far left, Islamism, and the far right, and that it tends to manifest itself as opposition to Zionism and the State of Israel. A statistical analysis shows that 150 million people across Europe have "serious anti-Semitic" or "demonic view of Israel".
By calling for Israel's destruction (the BDS bottom line), Ms Daire Louise O'Dowd (knowingly or not) is the modern face of anti-Semitism.
Yours sincerely,
Saul Gerstenhaber, Architect
London UK
Sir/Madam,
This piece ‘An Irish woman in the Palestinian West Bank - some harsh realities’ by Daire Louise O’Dowd on Irish Central is teeming with inaccuracies, falsehoods, fabrications and fairy tales. What was the intention of this cheap amalgamation of second hand mendacious propaganda? Did you take it upon you to attempt and rewrite history, like Abbas went berserk in his infamous tirade on 14 Jan 2018 ( https://www.theatlantic.com/
At least you are following the trend of your Irish government.
Sincerely,
Robert Barzelay
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