If I were to suggest to my fellow Welshmen and women that the resentment some of them have in their hearts towards the English is not a helpful thing but that it is actually a sin, what would that make me? Would it make me an enemy of my nation? If I were to point out that actually, far from helping our cause, such resentment detracts from it, would that make me anti-Welsh?

Or let me give you another scenario – one that is just plain silly. We’re intending to do some bed and breakfast next summer as a way of earning a little extra income. In that situation, if Helen, my wife, were to continually burn the toast for the guests’ breakfast (guaranteed not to happen, by the way!) and if I were to suggest to her that it was not the best way to ensure that any guest would want to return for a second time to us, would that make me an anti-Helenist? If the guests were to complain about their burnt toast and I were to agree with them and suggest to Helen she might want to compensate them in some way, would it be fair to accuse me of anti-Helenism?

No, of course not. In both scenarios the suggestions and criticisms made by me would be fair and maybe even wise. Holding onto resentment isn’t a good and godly thing and burning the paying guests’ toast is not a good way to run a business (though you may want to tell me to make the toast myself!). So why is it then that if someone criticises the state of Israel for taking land that belongs to private Palestinian citizens and takes houses away from wholly innocent people, they are immediately accused of being anti-Semitic?

In a post-Holocaust world to charge anyone of anti-Semitism is one the gravest accusations you can make. You are aligning them with one of the most odious political regimes this world has ever seen, a regime that murdered over six million Jews. It is not an assertion that should be made lightly about anyone for in doing so you are either painting the accused as complete monsters or you are devaluing the term ‘anti-Semitic’.

And yet in north Wales today this is the accusation that has publicly been made against some people by a prominent political figure. The details so far are a little sketchy, which is why I have not named anyone. But potentially it is an issue that is too important to be silent about.