Reading about an Israeli preaching to China is laughable. Yael Arad talks about foreign workers, but I have one word that sums up human rights in Israel: occupation. Solve this issue and then you really can deal with other nations' human rights abuses. Meanwhile, people in glass houses should not throw stones....

and hypocrisy. The UK seems to be involved in everybody's business all the time. So what do you care what one Israeli said? Israel doesn't lecture China.

I see the international media circus, with the BBC at the helm, trying to indoctrinate people into believing that they are pure villains. I see the 'international community' trying to get involved in territorial issues that are none of their businesses. I see campaigns to boycott China and the Olympics. And then I see China standing up for itself against the blood libels from arch-hypocrites, while Israel caves into pressure like lackeys. When international media outlets were given an escorted tour of Tibet by Chinese officials, BBC was not allowed to join. When the BBC asked to be allowed in, the Chinese told them "Sorry, you are not invited." I applaud the Chinese actions against an organization that excels in disinformation and hidden agendas, and it is high time that its wings were clipped.

I find it totally preposterous for Israel to be preaching about human rights. What the Zionists do to the Palestinians gives them no right to lecture the Chinese about human rights abuses. People can't even leave Gaza to get treatment because they are labeled as terrorists. On the point of human rights Israel is morally bankrupt and should look to its own human rights abuses before criticizing China's - admittedly poor - record.

area before yapping occupation. Who really owns the land and how far back does one go in order to determine ownership. Squatting in an area does not mean possession. I assume you didnt take history in your life lessons.

Yes, all very well to protest now. But, the China of today is showing its true nature, thru its unelected government. Totalitarian, without limit.. Yes, they should have protested when China wanted and won the toss for the Olympic games. Do you think for one second that, the International Olympics Committee would have changed its mind? No, I doubt it. These sleazy, well paid, crooked bums would still have done the same. I would bet my shirt, that money was paid for the rights to hold the games in China.

The occupation must end and alien Arabs return to their place of origin in Arabia. Then Historic Israel will no longer be occupied.

Another glass house

it's a little unfair to threaten not to participate Chinese olympics and at the same time buying their products. Which are cheap because there's a lack of human rights.

They're a very ambitious, productive, modest and hard-working people. Whatever happens in Tibet does not conern the vast majority of them. And I can feel their frustration with the bad media coverage they're getting. Probably full of exaggerations. This is all too familiar for us Israelis, for generations we've been getting a biased coverage that favored the Palestinians. By the way, I've also felt the same sympathy toward the Serbs during the Balkan war. #1 - don't preach to us about glass houses. The Brits are the kings of hypocrisy, what about the human rights of the Brazilian tourist you shot in the underground? When terror strikes in London, you are that much more ruthless. Let's see you, surrounded by enemies! #4 - Another hypocrite. As Jake said, before criticizing Israel, look at your own country's human rights records! When you'd give equal rights to the Copts, complete freedom of speech, complete freedom of the press, and completely curb out female circumcision - let us know.

The thing is no official organ of the Egyptian state is yet to criticize China's human rights record. The Egyptian establishment knows of its poor human rights record and therefore cannot go out and criticize China because of the glass house metaphor. That is unlike your marauding state which occupies most of Palestine, parts of Syria and Lebanon and terrorises whole populations but has the self righteousness to go out and criticize others for the poor human rights records. As an Egyptian I am truly ashamed of our poor rights records but then again I am speaking on my own behalf and am not an organ of the state.

"Perhaps we should start by dealing with the problems of the foreign workers in our backyard before attempting to fix the world ..." Where's the hypocrisy? The writer is saying Israel needs to deal with its own human rights abuses before criticizing others.

extent valid, is amplified by the West in a bid to stifle Chinese growth by encouraging boycotts so that China cannot challenge U.S. dominance. It won't work. Further, it's hypocritical. The Chinese human rights record isn't much worse, maybe better than the U.S. one during the era of U.S. industrialization (U.S. labor history is a sordid and ugly tale), and China is far less aggressive militarily than the U.S. is. I'll leave the Tibet issue to Richard Gere and the Dalai Lama. I sympathize, but I sense a lot more political manipulation with the issue than I'm comfortable with. I've seen what the U.S. has encouraged among former Soviet client states and republics... essentially a dissolution of its former nemesis territory by territory. Tibet and Taiwan seem like a similarly calculated strategy for maintaining U.S. dominance. Human rights seems hardly the motivation for the Western world's official position on this matter.

China has been growing and most probably will be growing for a while. The more they grow , the stronger they demand what they want to the world. Let's see how it'll go. BTW - In past Olympics, none of the contries that were either dictatorship or communism and held Olympic collapsed within 10 years after Olympic like Nazi Germany and USSR. Let's see how it will go.

I remember well when Mark Spitz continued to compete during the Munich Olympics despite the murder of Israeli athletes, but that is the reality. Don't expect great significant sacrifices from athletes. Their first priority is to their sports. When the politicians decided 8 years ago was when this protest should have taken place.

We wouldn't expect the athletes to boycott, but for an average person such as myself there already is a shift away from buying things from China. I worry about safety. Now I read that they have one of worst human rights records and they try to re-educate hundreds of thousands of people in their labor camps. Also that they imprision more Christians than any other country. So it just gives us more impetus not to buy things made there.

where did you get the idea that the writer of this column represents "an official organ of the Israeli state"??? and why did you title your talback "to all zionists"? To your knowledge - Yael Arad was an Israeli athlete, and, in Israel at least, athelets are not part of the government or of the "zionist organ" or whatever, even if they take part in the olympics. So, I don't understand where did you get the idea that "Israel preaches to China", because it doesn't and it didn't. Secondly, regarding human rights violations in Israel. They are not worse than those in Egypt. Egypt that massacred civillians with gas in Yemen. That executes homosexuals. I am not proud either, but one thing I can tell you. Israel faces a problem not faced by Egypt nor by China - a problem of "us or them". Actually I'm wrong here, because the Egyptian govt (like other arab govts in the region) does face this problem too, when speaking of fanatic islam and the muslim brotherhood. Only that here, it's not just the govt but rather - if Hamas, Hizbullah, Islamic Jihad, have their way - it is all Jews that are extinguished, brutally. Don't full anyone to believe that they are fighting for human rights and liberation. And you know it.

We already know that Londonistan will host the next olympics after Beijing. We also know that the UK is the global epicenter of antisemitism. It will only be worse in 4 years time. Shall we wait until then to protest?

It is hard to argue with a sportswoman for whom one has great respect, but... The key question is whether China is a fitting host for showcasing the ideals the modern Olympic games are supposed to hold high according to the Olympic Charter, Fundamental Principles, paragraphs 2 & 5. When the games were granted, Rogge stated that human rights were an issue and they would be monitored thru the UN and Amnesty. At the time, China spokesperson Kong said, "With the approach of the 2008 Olympic games, we will intensify our efforts" in the area of human rights. Sadly we see that has not happened even though there has been economic liberalization. The only intensified efforts seem to be suppressing human rights in Tibet and other minority areas. Against that background, it is a justified question if China should be allowed to act as an unblemished host while betraying the ideals she is supposed to be showcasing.