Letters to the Editor | Sept. 5, 2022

The efforts of supporters of Israel to stigmatize and persecute critics of Israeli policy toward Palestinians are shocking. Natalie Abulhawa’s summary dismissal as a teacher from Agnes Irwin School is a scary example. Do these groups agree with a 55-year-old military occupation of a people whose families have lived on that land for generations? Do they agree with the gradual displacement of these indigenous inhabitants and the importation of thousands of settlers who are completely separate and rewarded with better housing and plenty of water? Do they support the checkpoints that Palestinians have to go through while settlers have their own roads forbidden to Palestinians? Do Palestinians deserve to be killed or imprisoned for protesting policies that the rest of the world has no trouble condemning? Are they defending all this and saying people who oppose them are antisemites? Look at the physical reality and not just the words of a young person posting on the internet.

Joan Hazbun, Media

A recent op-ed, “TD Bank should increase mortgage lending in Black and brown communities” (Aug. 29), noted that TD Bank needs to do better for the communities of color that it serves — and we agree.

TD Bank is unequivocally committed to providing access to financial services across our diverse customer base in the communities we serve. We do not consider race, ethnicity, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, or membership in any protected class in our loan underwriting process or in offering any other product or service. But we can and are doing more to serve the financial needs of diverse customers and communities.

We recognize that we need to be part of the solution to address historic and systemic home lending disparities. Over the course of 2021 and 2022, TD Bank implemented several initiatives and new products in our efforts to diversify our customer base and enhance our ability to provide home lending options to all borrowers.

These efforts include TD Home Access Mortgage, a special purpose credit program designed to increase homeownership opportunities in Black and Hispanic communities, and a recently established relationship with the Philadelphia Housing Authority to help qualified Housing Choice Voucher Program participants move from renting to owning a home.

There is an overwhelming need for affordable housing in Philadelphia. Stagnant wages, building, and gentrification have made homeownership — or affordable rental housing — unattainable for too many people in just one generation.

While TD Bank has made strides, we acknowledge there’s much more work to be done to lower barriers to homeownership and that it will take time for our initiatives to make a meaningful impact. We look forward to continuing to serve Philadelphia residents as the only top 10 bank headquartered in the region.

Michael Innis-Thompson, head of community lending and development, TD Bank

In reading that Lindsey Graham is predicting “riots in the streets” (“Graham predicts riots if Trump is prosecuted,” Aug. 30), I hear echoes of Donald Trump’s own words to his riotous mob on Jan. 6, 2021, essentially encouraging them to storm the U.S. Capitol to prevent the peaceful transfer of power after he lost the 2020 presidential election. Graham is sending a message to people of the same mentality as those who rioted that fateful day, giving them permission to do their worst and sanctioning such behavior. In fact, we can only hope that prosecuting Trump to the full extent of the law may bring back the rule of law that he and his followers have sought to overturn and destroy in this country.

Marc R. Inver, Lafayette Hill

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