Shuli Davidovich, the press secretary at the Israeli embassy, responded to the report of my recent stay in Bethlehem with the implied suggestion that Palestinian terrorism justified the Israeli government's position, particularly in the building of the Wall Of Separation (April 7).

I cannot, and do not, justify the actions of suicide bombers and if Israel had chosen to protect herself with a security wall or fence on the Armistice (Green) Line of 1949, the security argument which he puts forward would have been credible.

But the line of the present wall, all on Palestinian land, sometimes many kilometres from the Green Line, leaves itself open to other interpretations.

It often separates Palestinian farmers from their fields, people from their traditional water supplies and whole families. Some communities are forced to live in enclaves. If checkpoints are deemed necessary, the humiliation meted out by some Israeli soldiers who man them, is not.

Brian Shackleton, Riverside Cottages,

Sinnington.

Updated: 11:13 Monday, April 18, 2005