DAVID PETER FINE,
Sir, - Raymond Deane's remarks (September 4th) about Israel's "illegal and savage" occupation are both inaccurate and unfair.
Israel's legal justification in occupying the Gaza Strip and West Bank (which were never part of a sovereign Palestine) is a direct result of the 1967 six-day war, where her Arab neighbours sought to destroy the Jewish state. There was no Palestinian independence movement of any significant size before the events of 1967.
Israel has rightfully operated a policy of "land for peace" ever since.
Every effort to seek a settlement by which Palestine would eventually become an independent state has been rejected by its representative body, the PLO.
During 35 years of occupation, Palestine's inhabitants have benefited economically on a scale vastly better than its Arab neighbours. So much so that many non-Palestinian Arabs have immigrated into it.
When the Israelis entered the territories, the Palestinians (then Jordanian subjects and Egyptian citizens) had no health service, few hospitals, very few schools, no social services, no road infrastructure, and precious little else. Many rural villages had no electricity or running water. The Israelis brought all these benefits during their "savage" occupation. Until the Intifada, many thousands of Palestinians earned a good living within Israel proper. Even today, the Palestinian people receive little or no aid from their Arab "brothers". Israel has always footed the bill.
Israel's occupation is justified so long as Palestinian suicide bombers murder and maim the innocents in places such as Haifa, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
Finally, Mr Deane is incorrect to state that Palestine has explicitly recognised the state of Israel for the past 14 years. In fact, the PLO makes it very clear in its constitution that nothing short of the destruction of the Zionist state and the restoration of Jerusalem as the capital of an Arab Palestine would be acceptable in a final settlement.
The very fact that Israel has spent many millions fencing off the Occupied Territories would suggest that she is ready to leave when a final peace deal is settled. - Yours, etc.,
DAVID PETER FINE, Glasnevin Avenue, Dublin 11.