Why is it a crime for Jews to fight back?

Much has been written about ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte's spurious statements on Israel's acts of self-defence against Hamas.

I'll confine my focus to some of the "facts" offered by Duarte.

She refers to Gaza as being the most densely populated area on the planet. This "fact" has been proven to be a disingenuous myth by, among other sources, the UN Statistics Division Demographic Year Book 2008, which lists the Gaza Strip as having a population of 4603/km², making it almost insignificant against more than 20 other cities and areas, including Calcutta (27418/km²), Mumbai (27209/km²), Athens (20235/km²), Singapore or even Tel Aviv(7524/km²).

Duarte's reference to Israel turning the "occupied territories" of Palestine (they are "disputed territories") into "permanent death camps" displays her total ignorance of what constitutes an actual death camp - the most infamous being Auschwitz-Birkenau.

The Nazis did not haul in more than 500 truckloads of vital provisions per month, including foodstuffs and medical supplies, plus thousands of litres of fuel to ensure "prisoner" survival, as does Israel into Gaza.

Israel is routinely slandered as an "apartheid state" - with the hope that repeating a lie will ensure it becoming "truth" in the mind of a non-discerning public.

While Gaza can hardly be regarded as a "prison", its strategic isolation is in no small part due to its threat on civilian life . Had Gaza not opted to attack Israel with rockets as soon as the latter withdrew from its territory in 2005 - a practice that has never ceased - wars such as this would not occur . - Victor Gordon, Brooklyn

 - FROM the Gaza strip the Hamas militants shoot hundreds of rockets at Israel every week. Now that Israel has had enough, it seems to be the Israelis that are the problem? I do not understand.

Palestine has committed itself to a terrorist organisation (Hamas) and is responsible for the rockets being fired daily.

Hamas is shooting rockets into Israeli population centres but only when Israel fires back is it a crime. Yes, civilians die - because Hamas fires from populated areas.

If you keep shooting arbitrarily there will be consequences. - JC, Sandton