Jewish settlements not to blame for violence

Gary Spedding of Queen’s University Students’ Union (Letters, Oct 31) brands those facts that contradict his argument as Israeli government ‘propaganda’.

Area C, of Judea-Samaria (the West Bank), is not “off limits” to Palestinians, as Mr Spedding says, but contains only 4% of the Palestinian Arab population (the rest have autonomous self-government in Areas A and B). This arrangement exists, not by “Israeli military edict”, but under the Oslo Accords, signed by both Israel and the Palestinian leadership in 1993-95.

Consisting of empty desert, Area C is also where most of the Jewish settlers live, on about 2% of the land of the West Bank, and where Israel maintains a military presence — to curtail the suicide bombers and terrorists who have, since Oslo, killed 1,500 Israelis.