Dear Sir,

I noted with concern that in the October 10th article ‘Israeli army orders confiscation of Palestinian land in West Bank’, Coral Urquhart innocently refers to Jeff Halper as ‘an Israeli geographer’.  He is in fact far better known as head of the highly politicized group, Israel Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) – This mandates that his opinion must be treated with far more caution than that of a simple geographer.

Halper has a long and dangerous record of demonising Israel and campaigning for a one state solution – the effective destruction of Israel.  This has been documented in detail by the watchdog NGO Monitor and was noted by Guardian Unlimited correspondent Seth Freedman who wrote in his July 2007 article ‘Burning Bridges’ that ‘Jeff Halper …is a far more sinister figure in terms of the damage he does to the chances of rapprochement between the moderates in Israel and those on the Palestinian side of the divide.’

Halper’s comment in Urquhart’s article is in itself pure political conjecture – Speculation based on nothing more than Halper’s extreme political viewpoint, masquerading as the opinions of a mere geographer.  I hope that in the future, Urquhart and The Guardian will think twice before relying on the ‘expertise’ of the likes of Halper.

Yours Sincerely,

Dan Kosky

NGO Monitor – Communications Director