In his letter, “What if Gazans had crossed the border?” (June 9), Harry Leiser charges Rev. Steve Jungkeit with “the demonization of Israel.” I have a different perspective. I believe Jungkeit's intent was the same as expressed so beautifully by Desmond Tutu. “My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.” We all celebrate Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people.

At the same time we must condemn the imprisonment of the residents of Gaza behind barbed wire and the persistent and illegal expansion of Israeli settlements that take away land and opportunity from the Palestinians in the West Bank.

Rev. Jungkeit says “that’s our blood down there,” and I agree. When we accept dehumanizing anyone, whether the Palestinians or a refugee family in a church basement, we diminish ourselves and the faith traditions that guide us.

Faye Richardson

Lyme