I was at the opening of the Palestine literary festival in Jerusalem on Saturday night, when heavily armed police pushed their way into the midst of talks by Michael Palin, Deborah Moggach, and Henning Mankell, along with many of their readers from Palestine, Israel and elsewhere (Israel shuts Palestinian literary festival, 25 May). The police had come to close the festival down, and in another PR debacle of the type for which Israel is becoming famous, their clumsy actions drew far more attention to Israel's oppression of the Palestinians than if they'd allowed the event to continue.

The sight of the expelled participants and audience as we filed down East Jerusalem's main street, some people carrying dishes of canapes, to the new and hastily organised venue at the French Cultural Institute might have seemed merely odd or amusing. In fact, it was a vivid reminder of Israel's fear of anything which might suggest that Palestinians are as cultured, civilised and deserving of respect as their Israeli neighbours.

Karl Sabbagh

Newbold on Stour, Warwickshire

In response to America's demand that Israel must dismantle its illegal settler outposts in the West Bank, the Israeli army pulled down just one set of metal huts (Israel demolishes Jewish outpost, 22 May). The settlers started re-erecting. The army left them to it, as usual. You quote a "resident", Emuna Ben-Yona, who was comforted by knowing the outpost would always be rebuilt. I thought of the Palestinian families whose land she and her fellow fanatics have stolen. What comfort does Israel's mockery of Obama offer them?

Judith Kazantzis

Lewes, East Sussex