As prominent Israelis dedicated to peace, we oppose Trump's apartheid plan

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As Israelis dedicated to a peaceful future for our country and for our Palestinian neighbours, we state our principled opposition to the Trump administration’s plan for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

This plan will not solve but deepen the conflict, engendering a degree of inequality not seen since South African apartheid. This is a Bantustan plan, caging the Palestinians into pockets of land controlled by Israel. Trump and Netanyahu are acting as two wolves negotiating how to eat a sheep. Spurred on by Trump, Netanyahu has already declared his intention to formally launch annexation of the Jordan Valley and the settlements in the West Bank. All of this is diametrically opposed to international law and relevant UN Security Council resolutions, including 2334 (which states that Israel’s settlement activity constitutes a “flagrant violation” of international law and has “no legal validity”).

We are deeply alarmed by the EU’s weak response so far, framing the Trump plan as “an occasion” to relaunch peace negotiations. The plan is no such occasion, but a roadmap to apartheid 2.0. It won’t bring peace, nor a viable two-state solution. The Palestinian leadership can only reject it.

We call on Europe to reject Trump’s plan, too, and start taking serious measures against Israel’s annexation of Palestine – before it is too late.

Ilan Baruch, former Israeli ambassador to South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe
Professor Eli Bar Navi, former Israeli ambassador to France
Professor ​Michael Ben-Yair, former attorney general of Israel and former acting Supreme Court judge
Avraham Burg, former speaker of knesset and head of the Jewish Agency
Zehava Galon, former member of knesset and former chair of Meretz Party
Professor David Harel, vice president of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Israel Prize recipient (2004), EMET Prize recipient (2010)
Professor Moty Heiblum, EMET Prize recipient (2014), member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities
Miki Kratsman, EMET Prize recipient (2011)
Alex Levac, Israel Prize recipient (2005)
Dr Alon Liel, former director general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, former ambassador to South Africa and Turkey
Mossi Raz, former member of knesset
Michal Rozin, former member of knesset
Professor David Shulman, Israel Prize recipient (2016) and EMET Prize recipient (2010)
Professor Zeev Sternhell, Israel Prize recipient (2008)

Time’s up for the NHS

Last month it was revealed that accident and emergency waiting times are now the worst on record, with one in five patients waiting more than four hours and the number of 12-hour waits at an all-time high.

Behind these shocking statistics are real people: people like RAF veteran Stan Solomons, who was left waiting on a trolley at Leicester Royal Infirmary for over 12 hours last month; or like the four-year-old who made headlines in December when he was photographed lying on a pile of coats while waiting for a bed in Leeds General Infirmary, an image Boris Johnson made a shameful effort to avoid acknowledging.

These shocking revelations presented an opportunity for humility and reflection. Instead, we were told that winter is “always challenging” – an insult to patients and to staff who have endured year after year of underfunding and understaffing. This response was followed soon after by the announcement of plans to scrap the four-hour A&E target, an action the Royal College of Emergency Medicine has rightly warned will have “a near-catastrophic impact on patient safety”.

These are not isolated incidents. They are an everyday experience for people up and down the country.

We have become numb to the word “crisis”. But make no mistake: the situation is getting worse and without major action, there will be a breaking point.

The Conservatives have promised “record” funding for our health service, but this is simply not true; they have promised 40 “new hospitals”, yet 34 of these have simply been given small amounts of money to develop “plans” for future work, and no funding to implement them.

We want to provide the best for our patients, but it is becoming harder and harder to do so. We will make every effort to hold this government to account, for their sake.

We implore you to be honest about the problems our NHS is facing, and take urgent action to restore it to good health. It is not too late to make amends.​

Tom Gardiner, doctor
John Puntis, consultant paediatrician
Peter Barton, clinical nurse specialist
Marie Louise Irvine, general practitioner
Joy Inns, doctor
Hannah Golden, trainee psychologist
Lopa Banerjee, medical student
Nick Mann, general practitioner
Margaret O’Connor, health visitor
Richard Hall, trainee clinical psychologist

For the full list of 600 NHS staff members who have signed this letter, see here

Scotland’s return

It is apt that the EU parliament sang Auld Lang Syne to mark the UK’s departure.

We Scots voted to remain but were denied by Westminster. Yet the cup o’ kindness will be taken again when we haste back with ceud mile failte.

Aye tae the EU.

John Edgar
Kilmaurs, East Ayrshire

Can someone explain how comments from people like Emily Thornberry, who said that we have to be more careful with our language around Brexit, can justify her declarations that she “hates the SNP”? How is this going to bring the country together? Can she not understand that, like the UK’s desire to leave the EU, the SNP merely wants to take back control and stop decisions about our country being made in a distant and unrepresentative legislature?

Geoff Forward
Stirling

Cost-cutting

So Boris Johnson wants to cull “poor-value” projects. May I suggest that he starts by putting his money where his mouth is: cutting the £300 per day members receive for an afternoon snooze in the House of Lords, sleeping off a subsidised lunch, would be a start.​

David Hooley
Newmarket, Cambridgeshire

Northern fail

That Northern Rail is losing its franchise is great news: it shows how good the franchise system is for passengers. The government is able and willing to act on our behalf; but when the government owns and runs the rail system, no customer can challenge the incompetent. Too many people forget just how excruciatingly bad British Rail was, and how impossible it was to do anything about it.

Steve Hills​
Milton Keynes