‘I don’t know how it ends. I only know how it starts’

Letters to the editor: our readers share their views. Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

Smoke rises following a recent Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip (AP)

I am thankful that Hamas have released two more captives, both Israeli women, and returned them to their families. I am also thankful of the goodwill and kindness of the governments of Qatar and Egypt who facilitated their release.

Two hundred more Israelis, mostly civilians, are still imprisoned by Hamas. Meanwhile the tragedy that is the slaughter of the Palestinian people trapped in Gaza continues. Aid is arriving, but not nearly enough.

Joe Biden continues to give the greenlight to the massacres of civilians in Gaza, followed by other Western leaders, endorsing this futile campaign of indiscriminate death – hurting and killing people who had nothing to do with the massacre in Israel on 7 October.

The cycle of violence continues. Have we humans learned nothing from past atrocities inflicted by one group of humans on another – including the Holocaust?

I am impressed by those Jews who are standing up and speaking publicly against what their government is doing, and who are calling for a different approach. One such is Gideon Levy, a well-known writer for the respected Israeli newspaper, Haaretz. He was interviewed by an Indian television journalist, Rajdeep Sardesai, on India Today.

Levy called for an immediate ceasefire – as I do – and said he thinks it is too late for a two-state solution as Israel has built so many illegal settlements on the West Bank, housing 700,000 Jewish settlers, that it would be impossible to remove them. He thinks the only way forward is a true democracy – one person one vote, where everyone has equal rights.

He acknowledged that some people might think this is a fantasy, given that so much anger and hatred exists between the two communities, but the pattern of violence which keeps recurring every few years cannot go on.

“We should first of all go for a very rapid deal and a very generous deal to release all the kidnapped Israelis and all the Palestinian prisoners in jail,” he said. “If we not do, we will lose all the kidnapped Israelis.

“Satisfying justified emotions cannot be the only guide in such times... What does Israel get out of killing more and more innocent civilians? What will come out of it? Just more hatred, more frustration, and more will suffer... We have to get to the roots of things, and above all open the cage of Gaza.

“We know that the way of fighting, killing, bombing, never leads anywhere. What is the purpose? How will it end and what will it be the day after? That is the question. I don’t know how it ends. I only know how it starts. Change this reality.”

I couldn’t agree more.

Genevieve Forde

Aotearoa

The right to defend – not seek vengeance

Most people I talk to have no resources left to cope with viewing and reading about the tragedy that is unfolding in the Middle East. The “massacre of the innocents” on both sides is once again leading us to question what it is to be human and I am staggered to admit that amidst this catastrophe I still have time to be angered by the shallow meaningless outpourings of Western leaders.

Something tells me that Biden would like to be the honest broker but I see no glimmer of hope in the utterances of Rishi Sunak. They both hide behind the meaningless trope of “the right to defend oneself”. Since when did the “right to defend oneself” justify violent retribution? No modern democratic society would incorporate such an explosive interpretation in its legal system.

Although the utterances of our present home secretary never cease to amaze me, I cannot believe that even she would want to see retributive justice in our society. At the very least the consequences for basic human rights in our country would be horrific. The return of capital and corporal punishment would certainly once again become part of our society.

Is it too much to expect in our world that honesty and consistency will ultimately triumph over populism and self-interest? As I look at yet more pictures of tragedy and grief on both sides I need to believe so.

John Dillon

Birmingham

There are now more slaves in the world than when slavery was legal

I am a second-year Geography student at Newcastle University, currently enrolled in a political geography module.

I would like to convey my support for the investigative journalism carried out by Emiliano Mellino and Matthew Chapman regarding the UK modern slavery cover-up by the Home Office. I have been following the developments of this story ever since the first article was released and today’s article is even more harrowing.

Countries like the UK are deemed to be advanced in development, yet articles like these question whether this is in fact true.

For example, Banerjee states it’s over “187 years after slavery was abolished in the UK” however “there are now more slaves in the world than when slavery was legal.”

The Home Office’s slashing of job cuts by £8m is appalling, especially as it appears they assumed this would have little consequence. Catherine Broomfield argues that “farming interest groups tend to frame ... migrant labour as an economic rather than a social issue.”

Therefore I commend The Independent for digressing from the norm and publishing articles that are candid; informing our naivety of critical issues in today’s society. I look forward to seeing how this story further develops.

Jessica Monteiro

Newcastle

Be careful what you wish for

Presumably, if the Met Police are granted more powers to deal with extremist rhetoric, we can then expect the early arrest of Suella Braverman?

P J Peacock

Harrow

With flying colours

Nicola Sturgeon is to be congratulated on passing her driving test. After her failure to cut NHS waiting times, to shrink the attainment gap, to tackle Scotland’s horrific drug-death problems and – I imagine of most regret to the former SNP leader – multiple futile attempts to stage indyref2, isn’t it super she has at last one achievement of which she can be proud?

Martin Redfern

Roxburghshire

Human, all too human

Your anonymous correspondent’s well-balanced appraisal of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict ends with the flawed assertion that the first step to overcoming the carnage in Gaza would be “for both sides to see each other as human beings, not as animals”. The human animal is the one species that habitually commits acts of exploitation, cruelty, torture and genocide – whilst creating weapons that are capable of obliterating all forms of life – in its vain attempt to maintain hegemony over others.

Perhaps the human animal would have done better in the past and acted responsibly in the future if it were to acknowledge its place within the animal kingdom rather than seeking to divorce itself from the natural world of which it is a part.

Graham Powell

Cirencester