Anti-semitism is a dangerous and contagious virus and any institution infected by it must act firmly and swiftly to suppress it. The difficulty is when the Israel-Palestinian conflict is used as a cover. In your leader (7 May), you suggest that “a reasonable test would be to ask, does the critic of Israeli government policy accept Israel’s fundamental right to exist, which includes Israel’s right to defend itself and its designation as a Jewish state?” You argue that neither anti-Semitism nor anti-Zionism can be tolerated. While agreeing with your first statement, I would challenge your second.

Zionism (which refers simply to the establishment of a Jewish state in Israel) is a controversial movement among Jews themselves. While Israel has a right to exist, because of the existence of so many Palestinian refugees with a right to return the legitimacy of its establishment as a Jewish state can at least be questioned. Israel has a right to defend itself using just means and Palestinians have a right to resist the occupation in the West Bank and illegal settlements there.