Innocent Jews must not be blamed for Netanyahu's crimes

THERE is nothing worse than bigotry be it against race, colour or creed.

- JOHN KIERANS

Irish people suffered it for years in England up until as late as the 1960s and should know more than anyone as a nation what it is like to be the victim of hate.

The horrific shooting of Jewish people on Bondi Beach, Sydney, last Sunday in a deliberate and unprovoked attack is a reminder of what can happen when people blame a specific nation or religious group for the sins of its government or terror organisations.

Irish people have sympathy for Palestine and are rightly angry over what they see as genocide in Gaza. But you can't blame every Jewish person either at home here or around the world for the sins of the Israeli State and its fanatical extreme right-wing government.

It is like blaming every Irish person from Dublin to Boston for the thousands of Provisional IRA bombs that killed and maimed innocent people for 30 years during the Troubles.

The loss of 15 innocent lives on a sunny Australian evening and scores more injured is truly appalling and shocking.

I walked Bondi Beach last September and felt I was in one of the most beautiful and safest places on the planet and full of young Irish people.