In a May 20, 2016 Letter to the Editor of the Boulder Daily Camera, Anti-Defamation League Mountain States Regional Director Scott L. Levin responds to an earlier piece by Tom Mayer in the Daily Camera (“Hear about the Nakba,” Daily Camera, May 17). Levin notes that in Mayer’s highlighting of the Palestinian perspective on Israel’s establishment, he both mischaracterizes it as an “unrectified political crime” and omits key facts about the conflict.

Levin goes on to highlight the Jewish people’s historic connection to the Land of Israel, the rejection by the surrounding Arab nations of the UN Partition Plan and the necessity for Israel to defend itself upon achieving statehood in 1948, and the complexity of the current situation. He concludes:

Israelis and Palestinians cannot forget their history. The best hope for the future is a commitment to work for peace and reconciliation that includes a secure and recognized Jewish state of Israel alongside an independent Palestinian state.