23 APRIL 1983, Page 19

Traveller's tales

Sir: I wonder what point Alexander Chancellor's article on Hebron was intend- ed to make (26 March)? The Israel/Palestine problem is nearly a century old. What is needed now is a re-assessment of Zionism itself. The time for Traveller's Tales is past. References to the 'innate savagery of the Arabs' or examples of the innate savagery of the Zionists can play no useful part today. Provoked, dispossessed, persecuted, any one of us may give way to the innate savagery which is the inheritance of all mankind.

Diana Richmond

21 The Avenue, Durham City