SIR - Re “Lesson on Israel origins”, (Rudi Leavor, Letters, August 9). Sorry, Rudi, you can’t get away with sweeping statements misleading people into ignoring the fate of Palestinians and THEIR right to exist alongside Israel.

I don’t criticise the right of Israel to exist as Rudi well knows, within its original UN borders. I’ve worked on a kibbutz within those borders.

As for Arabs being “encouraged to stay and help build Israel”. Some did, having nowhere else to go and not being willing to abandon their possessions and livelihoods. Some became MPs as is their right as Israeli citizens. Others were dispossessed – sometimes violently – becoming refugees in their own country.

Not many years ago, Israelis made a huge fuss about leaving illegal settlements in Gaza, but they still technically occupy the “country”, setting fishing limits and controlling movement in and out; water and power supplies etc.

On illegal settlements of the West Bank, Rudi is silent. Some Arabs “indiscriminately” driving goats across Arab land – not cultivating it with Arab water – does not give Zionists a right to seize and colonise that land! Rudi is ignoring the truth in saying Arabs had no fixed settlements. Do Jews have the (God-given) right to Arab land, Rudi? That is the question.

John Hall, Pennithorne Avenue, Baildon