To the editor:

Michael Tarazi, legal advisor to the P.L.O., surely knows the absurdity of his assertion "if the wall were really about Israel's security, it would have been built on Israel's border." (letter, May 24)

Aside from the fact that the anti-terror barrier is almost entirely composed of fences with only about 5% not consisting of chain link fence, he also must know that Israel has no border on which the barrier could have been built.

In particular, Article II, Section 2 of the 1949 Israel-Jordan Armistice Agreement reads: "It is also recognized that no provision of this Agreement shall in any way prejudice the rights, claims and positions of either Party hereto in the ultimate peaceful settlement of the Palestine question, the provisions of this Agreement being dictated exclusively by military considerations."

In other words, the armistice lines are specifically not borders. It is inconceivable that the legal advisor to the P.L.O. is unaware of this and the disinformation in his letter is anything other than deliberate.
Alan H. Stein