Barry Hyman (Letters, May 13) claims that I was comparing “the invasion and mass murder by Russia in Ukraine” to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory in my letter to the Watford Observer the previous week. But while there have been numerous and serious complaints by Palestinians about the actions of Israeli security forces over the many years of their occupation, the point I was actually making was about the occupation of Ukrainian territory and that of Palestinian territory, and the very different attitudes of the British government towards the occupying countries involved.

It is important to consider what Israeli occupation - and according to the United Nations it is occupation - means in real life for Palestinians.

In February this year Amnesty International released a report called “Israel’s Apartheid against Palestinians: Cruel System of Domination and Crime against Humanity”. In it, it claims that Israeli laws, policies and practices against Palestinians in the occupied territories - and in Israel itself - amount to apartheid. It sets out how “massive seizures of Palestinian land and property, unlawful killings, forcible transfer, drastic movement restrictions, and the denial of nationality and citizenship to Palestinians are all components of a system which amounts to apartheid under international law.”

And it is not only Amnesty International - last year US-based Human Rights Watch issued a report entitled A Threshold Crossed, saying Israel is committing the crimes of apartheid and persecution in the same places. “The Israeli government institutionally discriminates against Palestinians,” it wrote. Furthermore, showing solidarity from ordinary Israelis for the plight of Palestinians, the Israeli human rights organisation B’tselem last year released a report titled “A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is apartheid.” Apartheid is acts committed for the domination of one racial group over another.

For the Foreign Secretary Liz Truss to say “There is no closer friend and ally than the State of Israel” is shocking when there is so much evidence of its discriminatory abuses. The British government is standing on the wrong side of history on this issue.

Many measures have been taken recently to isolate Russia internationally. On this theme, a broad coalition of Palestinian organisations promote a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel. And that’s where we come in. Faced with such an alarming attitude from the British government towards this issue, we can take action independently - people power. After all, a boycott against South Africa was a method of protest used internationally during the apartheid years there.

The occupations of both Ukrainian and Palestinian territory are wrong. My letter asked Watford’s Conservative MP Dean Russell where he stood regarding Liz Truss’ condemnation of Russia, yet praise of Israel. Before answering, he might want to look at Amnesty international’s 280-page report, Human Rights Watch’s 213-page report and B’tselem’s report, which is available online in English.

K. Gannon

Watford