Sir, – Micheál Martin’s hysterical over-reaction to the Israeli detention of Irish citizens participating in the Sumud flotilla embarrasses Ireland on the international stage yet again. These people were not innocent holidaymakers suddenly snatched at sea, but political provocateurs who desperately sought arrest and detention by Israeli forces. This event should be treated as the publicity stunt that it was. The real injured parties here are the ordinary Israeli and Irish taxpayers who have to pay for the arrest and repatriation of these middle-class narcissists. The best way for this Government to stop the genuinely shocking humiliation and mistreatment of Irish citizens would be to focus on the homelessness crisis in Ireland, or the ever-growing hospital waiting list, and ignore the self-indulgent gimmicks of the anti-Israeli lobby. – Yours, etc,DR DAVID WOODS,Dept of Classics,University College Cork.Sir, – Israel’s prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu is wrong to say that the way the people participating in the flotilla were treated does not represent the values of Israel. The Israeli army actions show the true values of Israel. Its army has acknowledged that 70,000 Palestinians were killed in Gaza, following the October 7th atrocity by Hamas. It is reasonable to believe that the injured amount to multiples of those killed. Despite a ceasefire, the killing in Gaza has not stopped. Clearly, the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness does not apply to the Palestinians. On this basis, those in the flotilla should consider themselves lucky to be deported. – Yours, etc,BRENDAN KELLY, Parteen,Co Clare.Sir, – The Occupied Territories Bill was introduced by then Fianna Fáil foreign affairs spokesman Niall Collins in 2018 to censure and hold accountable Israel for its breaches of international law through occupation of Palestinian territory and its policies of dispossession, apartheid, and repression there, as prevailed at that time. (It had earlier been tabled in the Oireachtas by Independent Senator Frances Black.)Since then, the slaughter unleashed on Gaza and the escalation of atrocities and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank require additional response. The kidnap of our citizens from international waters and their degradation with the gleefully sadistic personal participation of Israeli cabinet ministers requires another.As part of the programme for Government, the Taoiseach, committed to the passage of a defanged version of the Bill he previously supported. That he has only now mentioned its resurrection in response to this latest outrage shows that this pledge was never intended to be kept. While any progress is welcome, what is required now is a comprehensive package of sanctions to be passed unilaterally.. – Yours, etc,BEN WALSH,Glasnevin, Dublin 11.