Why no petition to protect Jewish people?

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/19/why-no-petition-to-protect-jewish-people

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Seven hundred British artists published a petition (again) in this newspaper calling for a boycott of Israel (Letters, 14 February). As an Israeli politician who supports the creation of a Palestinian state it’s been a long time since I saw a letter so lacking in coherence. I wonder if before they put their names to the letter anyone told the 700 signatories that in 2000 and 2008, Israel offered the Palestinians the chance to build an independent state on over 90% of the territories and on both occasions they refused? To end the conflict Israel only has one demand: security. We don’t believe that’s unreasonable.

As artists – who by definition are people with imagination – are they willing to take a moment and consider what would happen if, following a call in the Guardian, the IDF puts down its weapons and stops protecting the people of Israel for 24 hours? If you don’t share the imagination of an artist let me tell you: radical Islamists would kill us all. Women and children first. That’s what they’re doing to their brethren in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen and across the Islamic world. What are the chances that they’ll spare us?

I am not a British artist. I guess I’ll never be as complex as Ken Loach or as grandiose as Richard Ashcroft. What I want is far more modest: for people not to try to kill me just because I’m a Jew. For Jews in Europe to be safe in synagogues and kosher supermarkets in Europe and safe from rockets in Israel. But I guess that isn’t worthy of a petition.Yair LapidChairperson, Yesh Atid, Israel

• The campaign to boycott Israel has nothing to do with antisemitism (Letters, 17 February). I support a boycott because of such things as children being put into prison and solitary confinement for the crime of throwing stones, fishermen trying to earn a living being fired upon by the Israeli navy, families split up with husbands and wives forced to live apart because of a discriminatory legal system. The battle against antisemitism can only be weakened by those who try to hijack it to silence supporters of justice for the Palestinian people.Dr Brendan O’BrienLondon

• Stephen Malnick (Letters, 17 February) asserts that Gazans “visit” the medical centre where he works in Ashkelon. Perhaps that’s because his government has bombed their hospitals.Stan BrennanLondon