The Gazette published a propagandandistic hit piece on April 30 targeting a member of our community for offering a prayer, as ordained clergy do, for those enduring history’s first live-streamed Holocaust. While the plea for a toothless, liberal movement that includes the line “Hands Off NATO” and attracts members of Congress to speak to their crowds of clapping seals is about as likely to include the cause of Palestine as a virgin is to give birth (forgive me, Father Scalia), it’s interesting that milquetoast commentary invoked such vitriol from someone who claims to “hate war.”

As with most broken clocks, the genocide apologist did get something right. “This is not about Donald Trump or Benjamin Netanyahu.” Nor is it about the personalities and track records of those individuals referenced above. It is about those beneath the bombs. Those being illegally occupied, terrorized, and starved like my ancestors in Ireland and India alike by the same evil: imperialism.S urprisingly, this publication allowed thoroughly debunked hasbara to attempt to justify what the world has collectively deemed indefensible. If you want click-bait, add a picture of an Israeli soldier wearing a Palestinian’s undergarments — there’s an uncomfortable amount to choose from. Why diminish your own reputation by including evidence-free claims of rape when there is video evidence of a blindfolded and shackled hostage — I mean, detainee, being assaulted on camera by soldiers from Force 100 at the SdeTeiman Israeli detention camp. By God, do better.

Sarah Coogan, Demilitarize Western Mass

Southampton