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Israeli killings

The problem in replying to the flat denial of a well-documented record of Israel’s violent oppression of the Palestinians it drove from their homes, and their children, is that providing examples quickly uses up Adver letters space.

Steve Jack’s latest claim, “Israel has never murdered innocent people,” is breathtaking either in its ignorance or in its dishonesty.

The very foundation of Israel was of course based on the slaughter of innocent people.

The mainstream civil rights organisation Human Rights Watch reported on Israel’s siege of Jenin, “many of the civilian deaths … (amounted to) unlawful and wilful killings” by the Israeli army. One man in a wheelchair, waving a white flag, was shot and crushed by a tank.

Amnesty International reported on the same siege; “… people were killed … in circumstances suggesting they were unlawfully and deliberately targeted.”

Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, and other human rights organisations, some based in Israel, point to the same conclusions around this and many other actions of the Israeli state. They also make it clear that many of these actions amount to war crimes.

What of Hamas using Palestinian human shields? There is no independent evidence of this. There is, however, evidence of the Israeli army coercing Palestinians, including children, into acting as human shields for their operations. An Israeli court actually, (temporarily), ruled against this practice.

Mr Jack says Israel’s murderous onslaughts on Gaza have been in response to Hamas rockets but he reverses the reality here.

So, for example, it was Israel that broke a ceasefire to launch a raid in November 2008 which resulted in the predicted rocket attacks.

While Mr Jack’s view of how the Nazis came to power is confused he is right to imply we should never let the Holocaust, or anything like it, happen again.

Today we are seeing in some countries the growth of Fascist organisations, complete with anti-Semitism, feeding off of crisis and the scapegoating of immigrants by mainstream political parties and media outlets for problems they didn’t cause. All decent people need to resist this.

PETER SMITH, Woodside Avenue, Swindon

Sad day for team

SATURDAY was a very sad day for Swindon Town and supporters, when eventually they were relegated to the lower reaches of the football league.

For me the writing was on the wall at the beginning of the season, you simply cannot get rid of your best players like this club has done season after season and bring in young players on loan who I know are very enthusiastic but, most importantly, lack experience.

There is a very important thing here - you can’t beat experience. This goes for the manager as well.

He should have moved on after the poor start but Power gave him a five-year contract - unheard of for an unproven manager.

I know and respect Power for balancing the books but he has come unstuck here for the way things have been handled on the pitch.

Swindon will find the going very tough in League 2, not much pretty football like we have tried and failed at.

Have seen the writing on the wall several years back and unfortunately lost interest.

This is a big catchment area for support of a successful team wasted for years to come.

CLIVE ALEXANDER, Alma Road, Aldbourne

Power is to blame

SATURDAY’S defeat condemned STFC to the depths of League 2 next season. How sad is that, when you consider that two seasons ago we were just 90 minutes away from the Championship.

Our demise has not happened overnight. We’ve been in decline since the resignation of Martin Ling and the appointment of Luke Williams in December 2015.

Lee Power takes the blame and quite rightly so. You cannot run any football club in the way he does. He decides who we get in and has influence over team selection.

Williams is simply a puppet. He may be a good coach. But he ain’t a manager either on and off the pitch. His win ratio is poor at 27 per cent. The lack of discipline by a number of players off the pitch, over the season, has been a regular occurrence.

The team has been in a desperate league position for weeks. Saturday’s performance was typical for the season. It lacked tenacity, passion, desire, endeavour and the will to win.

You’d never have thought we were fighting for our lives. It was pedestrian and poor. Perhaps it’s a reflection of the number of loan players we have who are not playing for their next contract simply because they have good ones elsewhere.

They don’t have to care or worry, unlike fans. The only exception is Rohan Ince.

This is the worst team I’ve ever known in my years of supporting my team.

If Lee Power does not sack Luke Williams and change his ways, by letting a new man come in and actually have total control over transfer policy and team selection, our demise will continue.

I really fear that we could be relegated to the National League in 12 months’ time. It’s that serious.

ALAN WILSON, Shapwick Close, Nythe, Swindon

We have our own lives

TO REPLY to Adam Poole, all the literature I read about the referendum vote on June 23, was about leaving the EU, stopping the EU free movement, leaving the Single Market etc.

You can’t have no free movement without the Single Market, so they both had to go. Simples.

As for warnings about what will happen when we do leave the Single Market, didn’t Mr Poole read all the posts, about if we voted to leave the EU?

Remember the emergency budget after day one, pound to drop in value next to nothing after day one, GDP to fall to next to nothing after day one, World War Three after day one and so on and so on.

It then proved, days later to be all false, our GDP is now better, the pound has fallen, but our exports etc are up.

It’s no bundle of joy, but we are leading our own life and will do so after we leave. I have never heard one leave MP say that we should stay in the Single Market.

Regarding his facts of when we went bust in the late ‘70s - I remember the Chancellor, Mr Healy, being asked to leave his holiday plane to explain to the IMF why we were so bust. That was down to Labour policies, nothing else.

T REYNOLDS, Wheeler Avenue, Swindon

Get priorities right

I MUST make a point regarding the Adver’s letters pages and the contributors attempting to promote the museum.

How many of them reside in a council house? No disrespect intended to the thousands of salt of the earth hard working families who do. How many are working for the minimum wage to survive? To pay the bills and keep a roof over their heads?

What about the pot holes I endure with my son driving towards the roundabout and going around it to get to Sainsbury’s at Stratton?

What about the handicapped children’s homes being reduced? What about the meals on wheels to the elderly being cut?

What about the car park in the town centre at ridiculous expense to the public being used as a public toilet?

As I predicted in a letter to these pages a few years ago, if Swindon wants to become a vision of culture, it could have fooled me one night driving down to pick up my daughter in Fleet Street at 2am.

Before the liberal elite brigade reply. I spent most of my childhood wandering around the brilliant museums in Glasgow - like the Kelvin Art Gallery and Museum, just one of the 10 in my birthplace.

My point? Priorities. I visited the Swindon museum in the Old Town on one occasion, and was astounded to see a genuine LS Lowry on the wall.

Would it not be a better idea to build a more modern but small museum to protect Swindon’s great heritage rather than the nonsensical figure of the millions of pounds advocated at our expense?

BILL WILLIAMS, Merlin Way, Covingham, Swindon

Austerity will stay

IN REPLY to Chris Gleed (Apr 24) I hope that he will continue to pick up litter around the village of Purton.

We need to understand that Britain is now in an era of permanent austerity. Borough councils can no longer afford to pick up litter and do the services that we have become accustomed to in the past.

I clear up the dog mess in my area, not because I want to, but because there is no one else to do it.

A salubrious environment is a basic requirement. We must all play our part if children and young families are to thrive and prosper in the future, because the young generation are the flower of the nation.

STEVE HALDEN, Beaufort Green, Park North, Swindon