June 2: Names are important

The fact that the media use Arabic names for Jewish and Israeli sites only gives the Arabs a boost of PR.

By JERUSALEM POST READERS
Names are important
Sir, – I want to say clearly that MK Tzipi Hotovely should be commended for wanting to introduce legislation that will give the original Hebrew names to so many sites (“Bill: Use only Hebrew names for east Jerusalem neighborhoods,” May 31). The fact that the media use Arabic names for Jewish and Israeli sites only gives the Arabs a boost of PR.
Shimon Hatzadik is the proper name for the Jerusalem neighborhood that today is referred to as Sheikh Jarrah. As Shimon Hatzadik, it was populated long before anyone knew of it as Sheikh Jarrah.
Names are very important – they give a sense of identity. It is none too soon for the Knesset to act. It is certainly right to do this before the 45th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem and would be its gift to the city.
TOBY WILLIG
Jerusalem
Not merely art
Sir, – Once again, we in Israel are subjected to negative criticism by makers of films, this time Shlomi and Ronit Elkabetz (“Livnat calls West Bank film to be shown at Sderot festival ‘one sided,’” May 31).
When Minister Limor Livnat rightly criticized their film Testimony as not showing the “reality that people in Sderot know very well,” she was booed. After all, the Cinema South Festival said, the film was an artistic creation.
Many people would agree with them – our high court allowed Jenin, Jenin to be shown.
These films are far from being only artistic creations. They are pure propaganda. The use of films for propaganda is almost as old as film itself. Would those who defend the right of filmmakers to freely show their films also have supported Leni Riefenstahl? Her films on Nazi Germany were pure propaganda, but at least she knew that they were to be used to help her country in time of war. We are also, no matter what some would claim, at war.
These films aid and abet the enemy. During wartime, especially when the world tends to support our enemies, there must be a limit to the freedom of “artistic creation.”
RHEA ISRAEL
Rehovot
We’re not suckers
Sir, – Ben-Gurion University of the Negev is under fire for its social science professors who virulently attack the Jewish state and bully students into kowtowing to their biased teachings.
So it is unbelievable that Prof.
David Newman (“Internationalizing our universities,” Borderline Views, May 31) attempts to sucker us into believing that this group of anti-Israel boycotters and delegitimizers will “place Israeli universities back at the cutting edge of scientific achievement.”
We can just imagine exactly what the Asian and non-Jewish students that Newman wants to attract will think of our country once they have been incited by such one-sided lecturers.
LYNETTE ORDMAN
Netanya
Another world
Sir, – Regarding “Parties on Right and Left bring no-confidence motions against PM” (May 30), I would like to elaborate on one statement of the no-confidence motion brought by Kadima’s Tzipi Livni.
According to Livni, previous Israeli governments “dealt with Hamas and created the Quartet conditions. The world was with us as we negotiated and reached agreements with the Palestinian Authority. None of this is happening today. Not only is Israel’s diplomatic standing in the world harmed, but so is Israel’s security.”
What world is Livni living in? She has to come back to reality.
This is Israel. The reality is that we gave away Gaza and received the largest terrorist base in the Mideast. Now we have Iranian influence within, and our peace partner Egypt is opening her borders, which will bring sophisticated arms into Gaza. Not only will our cities near the border be rocked with missiles, but Tel Aviv will be hit and start rocking and rolling from Hamas’s sophisticated long-range weapons. All this because Israel was the good guy on the block.
The world is with us as we give away our land, something that has brought us destruction, not security. The world sees us as weak, and no one respects weakness.
Let Israel stand strong. End these suicidal “peace” talks and tell the world we have decided on life, not death. One Auschwitz was enough.
BARBARA GINSBERG
Ma’aleh Adumim
Bewildering attitude
Sir, – Regarding “Israel thanks Canada for removing ’67 lines reference from G8 statement” (May 29), one can only be bewildered by the attitude of President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, who made it very clear about his hatred of Israel. In his speech to the Arab League he vehemently refused to accept Israel as a Jewish state. Moreover he declared that no Jew, whether military or civilian, would be in the Palestinian state.
It is incomprehensible that such a man could represent the idea of statehood for his people. This is not the world of 1933, when Hitler came to power with almost the same idea, that no Jew remain in Germany.
Abbas’s embrace of Hamas shows that he means to continue violence and terrorism against the Israeli people; now, his talk before the Arab League shows him to be a hater of democracy.
Monies must not be allocated to the Palestinian Authority until it elects a new kind of president – one who truly wants to live in peace with Israelis.
THELMA SUSSWEIN
Jerusalem
Looming threat in GA
Sir, – With regard to “International attorneys to Ban: Halt unilateral Palestinian statehood” ( May 27) and previous resolutions and agreements, although the US was not a party to the 1920 San Remo Resolution – which established that sovereignty over the entire Land of Israel and Palestine was vested in the Jewish people – it, along with the Mandate for Palestine, was endorsed in 1924 by the US Government as part of a treaty with the UK (the Anglo-American Convention respecting the mandate for Palestine).
More recently, in 1975, the US and Israel signed a memorandum of understanding in which Washington undertook not to support any proposals that it and Israel agreed were detrimental to the interests of Israel.
JACK SHEBSON
Jerusalem
The writer is an attorney
Sir, – Has not the time come for Israel to introduce resolutions to the UN General Assembly demanding recognition of an independent Kurdish state, as well as independence for Scotland, Northern Ireland, Corsica, Brittany, the Basque people, etc.? What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.
STANLEY LAWSON
Jerusalem
Who’s responsible?
Sir, – The editorial “Keeping the Dead Sea alive” (May 26) was written with good intention.
But permit me to point out that at no time has any operation at the Dead Sea Works “extracted phosphates.” Phosphates are mined in the Negev.
Also, no mention was made in the editorial that the Dead Sea Works was part of the government- owned Israel Chemicals Ltd. before it was privatized. As such, there is a degree of governmental responsibility since it also permitted the hotel development at Ein Bokek while operating the plant.
The Jordanians also have a share in the responsibility, since their development of the Dead Sea potash industry commenced in the late 1980s, when there were no international environmental protests over this move.
COLIN L. LECI
Jerusalem
The writer was engineering manager for PAMA, a governmentowned company developing Israel's oil shale resources