Buffer zone bill is an attack on the Christian minority

They will also ignore the fact that during the consultation 77 per cent of respondents disagreed with the purpose of the bill which once again proves that a consultation process in relation to a bill going through the Scottish Parliament is a box-ticking exercise which tries (and fails) to apply a thin veneer of democratic credibility to the process.

Let’s call out for what it is this proposed law: a disproportionate and unlawful attack by a secular mainly left-wing Scottish Parliament against the mainly Christian/Catholic minority community in Scotland. Forget the emotive hyperbole coming from Gillian Mackay, Monica Lennon et al: these are the same politicians who would have allowed transgender rapists into women’s prisons under the discredited Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill.

The hypocrisy is quite incredible.

John Smith, Falkirk.

Where's the concern for fellow Jews?

IN response to the Jewish university staff in Scotland whose letter was published on Monday (June 3), I would say there are few so blind as those who are professing to lead our young generation.

On no fewer than four occasions was the emotive word genocide used in their letter. This false accusation against the State of Israel, which they find so easy to throw around, was recently rejected by the International Court of Justice, and yet these people clearly think they know better.

South Africa made an accusation to the ICJ that by its military action in Gaza, Israel is committing genocide against the people living in that forsaken area. And yet the ICJ did not instruct Israel to stop its military action. Hence by definition, the ICJ judges did not agree with South Africa that Israel is committing genocide. But again it seems that these Jewish university people know better.

I am amazed that these luminaries do not seem to know that the definition of genocide by the Genocide Convention is based on “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”. The crucial word is “intent”. One would expect that even these insightful Jewish university staff would be able to clearly see that Israel has gone beyond any other army in the history of wars to try and ensure that civilians in Gaza are able to evacuate to safer areas before Israel undertakes military action in their area. There is no intent.

READ MORE: We Jewish university staff stand with our students

READ MORE: Israel's actions in Gaza cannot be described as genocide

READ MORE: JK Rowling is right. The battle for women's rights is far from over

On October 7 Hamas attacked Israel with the genocidal intent of killing as many Jews as possible. They managed to kill over 1,200 men, women, children, babies and the elderly, some of whom were Holocaust survivors.

But your university correspondents who have oozed so much sadness and concern for the people of Gaz have made no reference to their fellow brethren Jews who have been butchered in the most horrendous atrocities or to more of their brethren who were abducted with such cruelty and violence into Gaza where they have been kept as hostages in underground tunnels and in such inhumane conditions that it is now thought that over a third of them have been killed or died in captivity.

I see no mention whatsoever in the letter about this internationally-proscribed terrorist organisation that is completely responsible for this sad conflict during which many good people on both sides have been killed. It seems that these Jewish university staff in Scotland who are so empathetic to the suffering of the people of Gaza care not at all for their fellow Jews who have suffered similar if not worse treatments from the terrorists.

Let us hope and pray that Jewish staff from universities in Scotland or their descendants never have to seek refuge from anti-Semitism in the Jewish state.

Sammy Stein, Glasgow.

Dalkeith's D-Day hero

AS we mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the largest seaborne operation that began the liberation of France and the rest of Western Europe, we should reflect had it not been for the actions of a man born in Dalkeith, the outcome of this could all have been so very different.

Chief meteorological adviser Group Captain James Martin Stagg fought ferociously to persuade the Supreme Allied Commander, General Eisenhower, to change the date of the Allied invasion from June 5 to the following day.

Stagg not only predicted a storm on that day, which would have had a major impact on the landings, but made the vital forecast that the weather would break for long enough the following day to allow Operation Overlord to go ahead.

Some of the data that helped inform his decision came from a little-known RAF squadron operating on Tiree. It was the job of 518 Squadron to fly out over the Atlantic in specially equipped bombers and record the weather conditions.

If the D-Day landings had not taken place on June 6 they would have been delayed for two weeks and on that day the Channel was again hit by a large storm, which meteorologists would have struggled to forecast.

Stagg was proved right, and the D-Day invasion went ahead on June 6, beginning the liberation of German-occupied France, and later Europe, from Nazi control.

Alex Orr, Edinburgh.

MSP Gillian Mackay (Image: PA)

I refuse to cringe

A FEW years ago I had a letter in The Herald complaining about a mistake in English. "Cringe" had been used to mean "wince". I said that cringe meant grovel, kow-tow, and that you could not cringe without the presence of another person to whom you feel inferior.

This misuse has died down, but it appeared in The Herald's Classic Crossword on May 29.

The clue included "wince", but the answer in the grid was expected to be "cringe".

Pease do not do it again. It makes me wince.

Moyna Gardner, Glasgow.