Madam, – I wish to take issue with correspondence (April 14th) regarding your article “Getting to the heart of Israel” (Go, April 9th). I write in the interest of truth and historical accuracy for those who care about such things.

I take particular exception to the slur on Israel by John Reynolds who stated that “the ethnic cleansing of Palestine continues”. The only ethnic cleansing being carried out in the Middle East has been conducted by the Arabs.

How many Jews live in Gaza today following Palestinian occupation? Answer – zero! If the West Bank becomes a Palestinian state how many Jews do the Arabs plan will live there? Answer – zero! On their own words let the reader judge who is in fact guilty of ethnic cleansing, both in deed and in aspiration. “I will never allow a single Israeli to live among us on Palestinian land” said Mahmoud Abbas. Contrast this with the answers to the following questions. How many Arabs lived in Israel after the birth of the State in 1948? Answer – 170,000. How many Arabs live, work and vote in the state of Israel today. Answer – 1,400,000. This is ethnic cleansing? – Yours, etc,

Madam, – I refer to the letters from Pat Burke and John Reynolds (April 14th) regarding Cian Traynor’s travel article about Israel (Go, April 9th).

Having just come back from a three-and-a-half month stay in those areas – ie Israel and the West Bank, I can report that there are many tourists there at all times of the year. from all over the world and of all different faiths. I particularly was glad to get away from our winter. I can also report that there is a tremendous boom in home building and in the economy of Arab-inhabited areas both in Israel and the West Bank .

In addition, on roads such as Road 60, which runs from Jerusalem to Nablus and which is shared by both Arab and Jewish drivers, nearly every Palestinian Authority registered car is a new Mercedes, Volkswagen or Toyota .

In spite of what Mr Reynolds asserts (he even calls the Western Wall “Palestinian”), all the area in western Palestine, ie west of the Jordan River, is disputed territory and the so-called Green Line was in fact the delineation of the Armistice lines when the fighting between the neigbouring Arab states and Israel stopped in 1949 – nothing more and nothing less – it was never an international border. – Yours, etc,