Madam, - Raymond Deane's claim (March 31st) that Israel's presence on the Golan Heights constitutes an illegal occupation is false. This land was seized by Israel in the context of a war of self-defence against an attempted Syrian invasion in June 1967 and Jerusalem's retention of control over it is legitimised by UNSCR Resolution 242 which calls for an Israeli withdrawal only as part of a comprehensive peace settlement.
Despite the Golan's strategic importance, Jerusalem has long been willing to do this. Prime ministers Rabin, Netanyahu and Barak all indicated to Hafez al-Assad that they were willing to evacuate the Golan Heights in return for a treaty incorporating the normalisation of relations, water supply arrangements and early warning systems, but he effectively rejected their overtures - most recently in 2000 when he spurned Barak's offer to withdraw from all but a tiny sliver of land on the Sea of Galilee.
His son, Bashar, began making disingenuous noises about peace only as US pressure on his terrorist-sponsoring regime mounted after the Iraq war. - Yours etc.,
SEÁN GANNON, Chairman, Irish Friends of Israel, Ontario Terrace, Dublin 6.