Letters - 28 March 2025

Soul music

Alastair McIntosh’s Thought for the Week (‘On song’, 14 March) had me dusting off my CD collection.

I’ve been a fan of Leonard Cohen since my teens, nearly sixty years ago. I knew him as a devout Jew, but only recently discovered his work supporting Israel while campaigning for justice for all in Israel-Palestine – a narrow, stony path that wins few friends.

Amnesty International declined his US$1million donation from his 2009 Tel Aviv concert, intended for peace groups. In response, Cohen established the Fund for Reconciliation, Tolerance and Peace to help break down the deep-seated psychological barriers that perpetuate conflict. Besides funding research into reconciliation efforts, it has supported initiatives such as the Peres Centre for Peace children’s medical program, Combatants for Peace (bringing together Israeli Defence Force veterans and former Palestinian militants committed to nonviolence), the Palestinian Happy Child Centre  in Ramallah for children with special needs, and Parents Circle – Families Forum, uniting bereaved Israeli and Palestinian families.

Cohen also helped establish The Road to Recovery, connecting Israeli volunteers with Palestinians needing transport for medical care in Israel. The murdered hostage Oded Lifshitz was such a volunteer, and his funeral was held at Nir Oz kibbutz on 25 February. Despite the events of 7 October, volunteers continue assisting Palestinians in need. Friends can support this charity by donating online: www.theroadtorecovery.org.il

Ol Rappaport

Feeling the benefits

While I prepare to lead a discussion group on benefits for my Local Meeting, perhaps the below introduction I wrote is worth sharing nationally?

Shared experiences can enhance the establishment of empathy, whereas being lied about in mainstream mass media makes socio-economic disadvantage ever more isolating. In August 2024 there were: 6,936 households claiming Universal Credit (UC) in Hereford and South Herefordshire, representing 18.3 per cent of working age households; and 5,361 households claiming UC in North Herefordshire, representing 15.8 per cent of working age households.

People in this situation must be feeling very isolated: their time is micromanaged, and UC penalises low incomes rather than low wages. Meanwhile housing costs are soaring due to excessive rents, and state benefits consistently lag behind inflation.

Further, the ‘right to buy’ depletion of social housing stock has increasingly disadvantaged successive generations.

We also need to consider the costs of living with a disability.

Meanwhile, the chancellor (who is part of a double six-figure household) is intent on slashing and burning Personal Independence Payment entitlements for the sake of increasing Gross Domestic Product – a measure that favours armaments expenditure, disregards unpaid care as worthless, and was devised in the 1930s to gauge a nation’s capacity to mobilise for war.

In my experience and understanding, the phrase ‘The help you need, when you need it’ is the most bogus benefit claim of all, especially now that the average caseload of a UC ‘work coach’ is 400 ‘live’ cases and 1,000 ‘dormant’ ones.

What can we do as Quakers to help resolve UC and other claimants’ isolation and ‘speak truth to power’ as we seek to increase our collective socio-economic equality and diversity as building blocks for the future of Quakerism?

Alan Wheatley

Zero tolerance

The report from the recent Meeting for Sufferings (14 March) refers to net zero targets.

These will be based on the same criteria as government targets, considering our territorial emissions – that is, those emitted in the UK. On that basis it is claimed that our emissions have been halved.

Since the baseline date of 1990, our manufacturing has contracted considerably and we now import many more goods. The emissions from the manufacture and transport of these goods are not generally included in the calculations of emissions reductions.

If you look at the consumption-based emissions, they reduced somewhat but have now levelled off and may now be increasing again. This is shown clearly in a World Wildlife Fund report of March 2020, which can be found by searching online for ‘WWF consumption emissions’. This states that ‘Between 1990 and 2016 the UK’s consumption-based emissions (carbon footprint) declined by 15%’.

We need a better way to measure our greenhouse gas emissions.

Daphne Wassermann

Look the other’s way

As Quakers, we hope to make everyone feel welcome and included. I don’t see how dividing people up into groups and labelling them is going to help that happen. Quakers are people, and people come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, colours, ethnicities, abilities, sexes, education levels, genders, cultures, income, sexual orientations, and probably more factors.

Some people will need us to be aware of special needs, such as Meeting rooms and toilets which are accessible to those with mobility difficulties, as well as to everyone else. A toilet which is completely private – that is, one room containing a WC, wash basin and other equipment – can be used with dignity and a feeling of safety by anyone, regardless of their gender. Those with poor sight would benefit from a permanent arrangement of furniture and other obstructions, so that they don’t have to learn a new route around the Meeting room every week.

I suggest that, rather than worrying about who we might be excluding, every Meeting should devise a means of letting everyone know our aim, and who to contact if they don’t feel welcome and included.

Dorothy Searle

In neutral

Desmond Tutu once said that, ‘If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.’

The conflict in Israel/occupied Palestine is one of settler colonialism. The Israeli government wants as much of historic Palestine with as few Palestinians remaining as possible. They could not have carried out the ethnic cleansing and slaughter of innocent civilians, mainly women and children in Gaza and now in the West Bank, without the massive supply of arms and parts from the US and other western countries. We are complicit.

Palestine was the cradle of Christianity. Most Christians there are of the Orthodox tradition but the others feel the western churches have abandoned them. At the heart of Jewish teaching from the ten commandments onwards is how to treat the other and Christianity inherited this teaching. A generation ago western churches strongly supported the South African people in their struggle for independence and justice. Why the silence on Palestinians?

For months there have been demonstrations throughout Britain demanding an end to the occupation of the Palestinian Territories, and the need to secure a permanent ceasefire. Lasting peace is only achieved through justice and a political solution, not the end of a gun. These demonstrations are led by secular organisations and the time for the voice of the church to be heard is long overdue.

Kate Aspinwall

Love’s young dream

How very refreshing to read the report from Young Friends General Meeting (14 March). Positive, encouraging and enthusiastic, these young Friends shine the Light we need in these dark times.

They are our future. We must celebrate and cherish them.

Jenny Gordon