I was interested to read the letter entitled Hamas not the best government by Anti-terrorist .

The commentator claims to be debunking anti-Israel-Western sentiment. To do so, however, he uses unfounded statements that are frequently used by Israel and the western propagandists to try to support their positions. For example, he claims that Israel is resettling land that it had apparently settled since time immemorial and that '... history recognises the existence of the nation of Israel in the Middle East long before Islam came into existence'.

In truth it is a myth that any state entity known as Israel existed before 1948 when the entity was created on land belonging to Palestinians as long as any one can remember. Moreover, it is becoming increasingly frequent fare in the halls of anthropology and archeology to recognise that any claim made by Israeli and Western anthropologists and archaeologist about the existence of Israeli tribes in Palestine are just not supported by the facts.

Such claims have now been authoritatively shown - even by Israeli scholars such as Israel Finkelstein at Tel Aviv University - to be often fabrications not based on evidence. Instead, the evidence shows longstanding Palestinian settlements throughout Palestine.

The commentator makes the same mistake that Israeli premier Golda Meir made almost half-a- century ago when she denied the existence of Palestinians. Her statement, it is now known, was not based on any scholarly consideration of the matter, but merely her political biases and her will to exterminate Palestinians.

So to Meir and the commentator who appears to emanate from her school of thought, the Palestinians can answer definitively today that they do exist and have existed for a lot longer than the Israelis who have stolen their land and are trying to destroy their culture.

The writer is Professor of International Law, An-Najah National University, Nablus, Palestine.