Sir, A few additions are needed to your "Palestinians face severe water shortage" (July 1) to make it more accurate and as balanced as the rest of the paper.

Old libels & new

Sir - The South African Sunday Times wasn't the only paper in the world that provoked a discussion on "apartheid in Israel." In the Netherlands, the left-wing de Volkskrant had two pieces in one week on its opinion page - one defending Israel against the the claim of apartheid; the other, from the chairman of A Different Jewish Voice, upholding it. The result was a heated discussion in the talkback section of the paper, which recorded an all-time record of 441 reactions, most supporting the apartheid claim.

The most worrying part of the debate was the number of anti-Semitic remarks posted, the most outrageous of them from a man who presented a new, dangerous claim: The Jews were never expelled from Israel by the Romans - they choose to leave voluntarily! The meaning is clear: If the Jews left voluntarily, they lost any claim to the land.

Nothing will stop these people if we do not confront these modern libels.

The chief rabbi of South Africa did what he had to do, but it would be much more powerful if Nelson Mandela himself came forward to refute these claims ("This is apartheid?" Warren Goldstein, August 12).

In the Netherlands, the country from where the white South Africans mostly immigrated, the claim of apartheid in Israel seems already commonly accepted.

YOCHANAN VISSER
Efrat

Abouth Liberalism and Islamism in the Arab world. Part 1
Abouth Liberalism and Islamism in the Arab world. Part II