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The "reasonable" portrait you painted of Sue Blackwell made for intriguing reading ("I've no regrets", May 20). But the image that sticks in my mind is the photo of her wearing a dress tailored out of a Palestinian flag on your front page (April 29).

It reminds me of an exchange at our local AUT meeting during which the boycott was voted down. A member said that we were all there because we were on the side of either the Israelis or the Palestinians. I responded that it would be sad to think that we were there because we were taking sides. I thought we were there for a common cause - peace in the Middle East.

Taking sides is not the way to peace. Taking sides is part of the principle of strategic alliances, for which many wars have been fought but few peaces concluded. I hope that one day Blackwell will wear a dress tailored by Gush Shalom (Peace Bloc), "the hard core of the Israeli peace movement". Its logo shows the Israeli and Palestinian flags linked together.

Eva Frojmovic. Leeds University