There's a need for international force

The reality on the ground in Palestine is hard to refute. The presence of any international civilian in any location in the occupied areas is an instant guarantee of a considerably lower level of violence, brutality and death.

A simple look at the geography of the West Bank will prove this theory. Starting from East Jerusalem and going either north or south, one can easily discover the numbers of injured and dead to be on the rise.

It is no coincidence, for example that Jenin which lies in the northern tip of the West Bank was the scene of the most brutal attacks and the most flagrant human rights violations.'

The case of Hebron, which is in the southern tip of the West Bank is also interesting. Four hundred Jewish radical settlers live in the heart of this town which has a population of more than 200,000 Palestinians.

Even though there has been small skirmishes here and there this town has seen little of the violence and the high death toll that other Palestinian cities have seen.

Ever since the mass murder committed by a Jewish settler against 29 worshipping Muslims in 1994, international presence in Hebron can be credited as the main reason for the relatively calm situation.

In addition to a group of unarmed international observers in the city, a group of American Christian peace activists have made the city their home.

Members of the Christian Peace Team rotate in walking the areas of Palestinian-Israeli friction armed with nothing more than their personal courage and possibly a camera or a video recorder.

If such international peace members were in Jenin, there is no doubt that we would not have witnesses the war crimes that have occurred in the city's refugee camp.

A similar case can be made for every single checkpoint which has witnesses deaths of civilians, miscarriages of pregnant women and the humiliation of an entire society.

The much anticipated promise of President Bush and Secretary of State Powel for an end to the Israeli occupation and the establishment of the state of Palestine will require much effort and the reestablishment of trust.

The lack of trust can be seen not only between the parties but also between the parties and the rest of the world. Who is violating this political agreement, who is refusing to enforce that security understanding and who is not honoring this legal commitment has been repeated addnaseum without any reliable conclusion.

In order to stop this bickering and provide the peoples and the parties of the region with the badly needed calm and sense of security a major role for an outside force is badlyneeded. Such a calm can't take place when a powerful occupying army acts with such reckless disregard to human life and dignity.

If the presence of foreign civilians have provided such irrefutable evidence of a reduction in hostility, an international force that has a clear mission and mandate to enforce the peace and provide a neutral witness to those who are guilty of violating any infringement to agreed upon commitments will surely have even more impressive results.

Daoud Kuttab is the director of the Institute of Modern Media at Al Quds University in Ramallah. Israeli soldiers occupied, looted and destroyed his institute which includes an educational television station, in the period of April 2-21.