Sir, – Maurice Cohen of the Irish Jewish Council puts forward a well argued and reasonable case for why RTÉ and Irish people should not be boycotting Eurovision due to the participation of Israel (“Eurovision: prominent bars join boycott as Jewish Council criticises RTÉ,“ May 14th). However, I disagree. Given the content of what he says, it is worth repeating again that the boycott is not against Jewish people per se, either in Israel or in diaspora or as citizens of any other nation. It is a boycott against the behaviour of Israel as led by Binyamin Netanyahu. The October 7th massacre was an appalling event that shook Israel and the global community to the core. It had an equivalence to 9/11 for the Israeli people.What followed was in effect the vengeful destruction of Gaza and its people on a scale that is still hard to come to terms with. The terrible suffering there continues.Netanyahu’s regime has continued this trajectory in southern Lebanon and manipulated the Trump administration to wage war on Iran, endangering both the global economy and global security. Netanyahu’s actions are unfettered and unbelievably almost tolerated by the international community. These are all very good reasons to boycott Israel’s participation in Eurovision just as Putin’s Russia is rightfully boycotted.For a small nation, Ireland played a strong role in the boycotting of the apartheid state of South Africa in the 1980s. Given Netanyahu’s flouting of international law and norms and the continuing war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank many ask why a general boycott of Israel rather than just of the occupied territories is not pursued.Israeli journalist Gideon Levy (Haartez columnist) says that justice and a state for the Palestinian people of Israel/Palestine, like South Africa, will be resisted and not instituted by Israel itself internally, and that this will only be achieved by international pressure and action.Unfortunately there are complex reasons why this is not happening, including European guilt about the Holocaust.But certainly boycotts have a part to play in this, even in relatively frivolous events like Eurovision as this can highlight international opprobrium for the actions of Netanyahu’s regime in the Middle East. – Yours, etc,CYNTHIA CARROLL,Newport, Co Tipperary.