Aid could be beneficial

OVER issues between Israel and Palestine, I tend to support Palestine, but the situation is too complicated to claim that in absolute terms one side is right and the other wrong.

There are good reasons to put the government of Israel under pressure, but if the promoters of the boycott, disinvestment and sanctions campaign had the courage of their convictions, they would extend their target to governments that have far worse records of human rights abuses, such as those of Zimbabwe, North Korea, and a number of Islamic republics and monarchies – to name just a few.

Chuck Volpe's idea that South Africa could benefit from the water technology which has been perfected in Israel, is an excellent one ("SA could learn from Israel", April 18).

It would greatly improve life in the town in which I reside, where there is more water on the streets than in the taps.

What is more, Israel and Palestine could benefit, if – by way of repayment – South Africa were to offer its diplomatic skills in an area in which it has achieved spectacular success: ending a civil war and building a society in which (for all its weaknesses) there is an extraordinary degree of goodwill.

John Jackson, Grahamstown