• I WAS interested to see the letter about Kentish Town Community Centre cancelling Camden Abu Dis Friendship Association’s International Women’s Day event with Baroness Jenny Tonge (An attack on free speech, March 16).

What is going on? Who was putting on pressure? And what explains that fact that your otherwise excellent paper did not report the cancellation or the event and has not reported any CADFA events for over 10 years, despite much notable activity?

Is that to do with pressure? Might it bear some relation to the pressure put on authors of a report commissioned by the UN’s Economic and Social Commission for West Asia?

The report was prepared by Richard Falk, previously a UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, and by Virginia Tilley, a US professor of political science.

The report concluded that Israel’s treatment of and discrimination against Palestinians amounted to a state of apartheid. As soon as it was published there was clamour for it to be withdrawn. The head of the commission that had called for the report was instructed to withdraw it. She refused and had to resign.

The authors wanted discussion of the issues: instead the report was buried. Why can’t supporters of Israel engage in debate about what the country imposes on Palestinians? And why are the New Journal and Camden Council so twitchy about legitimate activity on the issues?

ANDREW PAPWORTH