Letter: Palestinians shun Nazi gold

Sir: The best and only use that can be properly made of the money stolen by the Nazis from the Jews would be to return it to its rightful owners. This may be almost impossible after fifty years of shameful deception by the authorities, but let us not compound these misdemeanours by adding insult to the injury already inflicted on the Jews.

As for compensating the Palestinians for Jewish settlements in Palestine, let it not be forgotten that it was in the aftermath of the Holocaust that more than half a million Jews were expelled from Arab countries and rendered homeless. At least the Israeli authorities have due legal process and one can hope that ultimately the Palestinians will come to an accommodation with their half-brothers, all of us being the sons of Abraham. Thank you very much, Professor Davis (letter, 8 October) but the Palestinians would not touch a single coin of that tainted Nazi gold, which is not ours either by right or by default.

It is time the Europeans acted with honour towards the victims of their colonial adventures, ceased this squalid argument over filthy lucre, and stopped patronising the people of the Middle East, whether Arabs or Jews. Perhaps that will only be possible when the Europeans themselves have come to terms with their crime of depriving the world of something infinitely more valuable than gold: the millions of human beings who were so cruelly extinguished from their midst. Who will ever be able to compensate Europe for this self-inflicted loss?

Dr FIRAZ AL AHMAR

London W3