Sir, Michael Gove (Comment, Dec 11) writes about the danger posed to Christians and their tradition by Islamism. In the West Bank village of Walaja, near Bethlehem, last August I watched as Israeli soldiers cleared an area where their wall was to be. I saw soldiers destroy a small Madonna and a cross on a Christian shrine there. They later bulldozed the entire shrine, but they made the effort to deface it first.

Being Jewish and having lived in Israel, I’ve learnt how important trees are in Judaism. There is a New Year holiday especially for trees, in which I have participated in planting hundreds. But over the past five years I have seen the Israeli military destroy more trees on Palestinian land then I ever saw planted in Israel. If the politics allow no room even for Jewish tradition, how much less will be given to others? Divide and conquer seems to be part of the Israeli practice, but if they continue to divide Jews from our beliefs, then we will also conquer ourselves.

Larry Zweig
Fürth, Germany

Sir, The UN and many other organisations do not, like Michael Gove, put the parlous state of Palestinian Christians down to Islamicism. One such report, entitled Costs of Conflict: The Changing Face of Bethlehem, was published in December 2004. It concludes that: “Surrounded by Israel’s barrier on two sides and restricted roads and roadblocks on the other, urban Bethlehem has become isolated from the rest of the West Bank and, most importantly, from Jerusalem.”

Mr Gove may not like the humanist messages of Banksy that decorate the illegal “security barrier”, but the startling reality is there to see for anyone who wishes to spend Christmas in the Holy land.

Ruth Tenne
London NW6

Sir, May I defend Michael Gove against Elspeth Rymer (letter, Dec 15), who castigates him for rejecting common misconceptions. Whether or not he has visited Bethlehem, I have, and it is increasing terrorism that leads to declining tourism. The same intimidation and violence, not even sparing the Church of the Nativity, has cut the Christian population from around 80 per cent in 1995 — when Israel handed control to the Palestinian Authority — to less than 20 per cent today. Israel has done everything possible to facilitate Christian visits over Christmas: it makes scant sense to blame it for issuing warnings to pilgrims. Nor is it relevant to rail against Israel’s security barrier, a bloodless protective measure that has cut suicide bombings throughout the land by 95 per cent.

Walter Leaf
Wembley, Middx

Sir, I stayed in Bethlehem last year with a Melkite priest and his family. I was the only guest in their 30-bed pilgrim hostel because the wall surrounding Bethlehem has destroyed its tourist industry and crippled its economy.

There are no pilgrims any more. Taxis stand empty with sad and hungry drivers waiting desperately for a customer. My taxi driver

cried and blessed me when I paid him; I was the first customer he had had all week. The priest’s wife begged me to buy embroidery done by parishioners; she told me that women came every day to ask if any of their work had been sold because they had children to feed.

All the Christians I met in Bethlehem were adamant that they were merely suffering the same fate as their Muslim neighbours and that Israelis, not Muslims, have driven Christians out of the oldest Christian community in the world.

Anne Candlin
Parbold, Lancs

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