I would like to commend the Sunday Tribune for taking a courageous stand and calling for a boycott of Israeli goods, the only national newspaper to do so as far as I am aware.

Israel's latest atrocity where it murdered nine humanitarian aid activists trying to bring aid to the besieged people of Gaza exposes a double crime. The first is the inhumane, immoral and illegal siege of Gaza which has put the economy to its knees and left people living in increasingly desperate conditions, unable to rebuild their infrastructure, not to mention their lives, since the assault which left 1,419 people dead in 2008/2009.

The second lies with the attack on the flotilla boats and the execution of nine people, some of them shot in the head and more than once, as well as the kidnapping in international waters and imprisoning of hundreds of other activists, Irish citizens among them. The bravery of these people to place their lives at risk in order to step in where the international community, including the Irish government, has so abjectly failed is inspirational.

The actions of Israel are those of a rogue state and this apartheid regime has no place in organisations such as the OECD until it upholds international law and ends the occupation of Palestine. The EU should suspend the Euro-Med agreement with Israel and cease all trade, as should Ireland. Irish people can emulate those who protested apartheid in South Africa and can show solidarity with the Palestinian people enduring their 62nd year of occupation by refusing to buy Israeli products and demanding that our shops stop stocking them. Diamonds constitute 30% of Israel's exports and are easy to boycott.

Zoe Lawlor

Dooradoyle Park,

Limerick

From Billy Fitzpatrick

The state of Israel was identified as the single 'greatest threat to world peace', by EU citizens in the European Commission poll of November 2003. Reacting to the non-reaction of the EU and US leaderships, following the massacre of the charity workers on the 'Freedom Flotilla', Turkey may send warships in an effort to get aid to stricken Gaza and lift the illegal blockade. Given Israel's habitual readiness to engage in armed and illegal actions in defiance of world opinion, this could make for a chilling scenario.

Congratulations to the Sunday Tribune, for its forthright editorial last Sunday, calling for action against Israel in the form of a boycott of its produce. Would that our political leaders would follow suit! As it stands, the EU's failure to represent the views of its people and to continue its abject policy of appeasement of this militarily powerful, rapacious and nuclear-armed state is now threatening world peace in a way we haven't witnessed for a long, long time.

Billy Fitzpatrick

Ashfield Park,

Terenure, Dublin 6W