It is hard to know whether the international presence created by foreign citizens at Yasser Arafat’s Ramallah headquarters helped prevent further violence there during the recent Israeli siege of the site. But there can be no doubt that the multinational presence in Bethlehem of foreign priests, along with the fact that the international community cares about the Church of the Nativity, helped keep control of what could have been an even more dangerous situation during the standoff in that West Bank city.

This reality on the ground in the West Bank and Gaza can be seen at every site of Palestinian-Israeli friction. Any international civilian presence in the occupied territories is an instant guarantee of a considerably lower level of violence, brutality and death.

A simple look at the geography of these Palestinian areas proves this theory. Starting from East Jerusalem and going either north or south, one will quickly find that the number of Palestinian dead and wounded rises the further one goes. 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 during the recent Israeli military offensive. Rafah, the southwest tip of the Gaza Strip, has seen more killed and injured than any other Palestinian city. There is no doubt that the further away from the center of the media and diplomatic center of Jerusalem, the higher the level of violence.

The exception to this rule is Hebron, near the southern end of the West Bank. Four hundred radical Jewish settlers live in the heart of this city, which has a population of more than 200,000 Palestinians. Even though there have been small skirmishes here and there during the current intifada, Hebron has seen little of the violence that has beset other Palestinian towns, and has not suffered the same high death toll. Since the mass murder committed by a Jewish settler against 29 worshipping Muslims in 1994, an international presence has been created in Hebron, and it should be seen as the main reason for the relative calm. In addition to TIPH — the Temporary International Presence in Hebron, a force of unarmed observers from six countries — a group of American Christian peace activists have also made the city their home. Members of the Christian Peace Team rotate in walking the areas of Palestinian-Israeli friction points armed with nothing more than their personal courage and possibly a camera or a video recorder. The reason is obvious. Killing or injuring a Palestinian might not cause much Israeli or international uproar. But violence to an American or a Norwegian will make its mark.

If members of such international peace groups had been in Jenin, we can safely assume that we would not have witnessed what the New York based Human Rights watch called ‘war crimes that occurred during battles in the city’s refugee camp. A similar case can be made for the potential benefit of outside observers at the array of military checkpoints in the occupied territories, where civilians have died, pregnant women have lost their babies, and an entire society has suffered humiliation.

Indeed, the Checkpoint Watch- a group of women including Israelis and foreign nationals that has begun a rotating checkpoint watch — has found that the presence of the observers has contributed to a significant reduction in the tensions and the suffering that Palestinians experience at the roadblocks, and which have been one of the causes of their frustration and anger.

The idea of international observers, of course, should not be seen as a magic solution. Rather, it is a short-term medication for a long-term ill — the occupation. If implemented correctly and with a fixed term, placement of international observers can alleviate the atmosphere of hatred, disillusionment and anger that has led to the deepening of the cycle of violence between Israelis and Palestinians. Having internationals in the occupied territories will also contribute to the need to educate Palestinians as to the mistake of the continued suicide attacks against Israelis civilians. It will also help re igniting hope whose absence has contributed to the creation of the suicide mentality.

Fulfillment of President Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell’s promise of an end to the Israeli occupation, followed by the establishment of the state of Palestine, will require much effort and the rebuilding of trust. The lack of trust can be seen not only between the Israeli and Palestinians, but also between them and the rest of the world. The arguments over who is violating this agreement, who is refusing to enforce that security understanding and who is failing to honor yet another legal commitment have been repeated ad nauseam. In order to stop the bickering and provide the peoples of the region with a badly needed calm and sense of security, a major role must be given to an outside force. Such calm can’t be created when a powerful occupying army acts with such reckless disregard for human life and dignity.

If the presence of unarmed foreign civilians has provided an irrefutable reduction in hostility, an armed international force will be much more effective so long as such a force has a clear mission and mandate to enforce the peace. It will also have an added value of providing neutral testimony regarding any infringement of agreed commitments.

Palestinians, Israelis and the international community surely have an interest in the reduction of the tension and the creation of an atmosphere of trust that can usher in successful peace talks. The creation of such a rapid international force is surely a supreme proactive act of peace. The sooner it is created the sooner we will begin the long path to peace, independence and security for all.

Discussions among Palestinians, concerning democracy, transparency and reform of the way the Palestinian National Authority conducts itself, are very refreshing.

Minister of Legislative Affairs Nabil Amer, who resigned in protest over the delay in implementing such reform, is to be commended for his courage.

I have been involved for years in trying to create a vibrant, independent media in the Palestinian areas, and have, at times, suffered for my media activism. In 1997, the attempts by Al Quds Educational Television, which I established, to broadcast live Palestinian Legislative Council sessions that dealt with corruption landed me in a Palestinian jail for seven days.

Recently, the efforts of human rights activists and democrats to reform the Palestinian body politic were dealt a fatal blow not by the Palestinians but by the invading Israelis.

The cruel Israeli siege of Palestinian areas has restricted the movement of three million Palestinians. Even elected legislature, entitled to parliamentary immunity, was not exempted from this travel restriction. For over a year and a half, the Palestinian Legislative Council, a body comprising 88 elected Palestinians, was paralyzed by this illegal collective punishment.

Even after the siege of the Ramallah offices of the elected Palestinian president was lifted, the Israeli authorities refused to allow Palestinians to re-establish parliamentary life. Ramallah district elected representative Dr Azmi Shu’ibi’s request to hold a session of the Palestinian parliament was rejected by the Israelis. Shu’ibi told me

Wednesday that he and a number of his colleagues wanted to introduce to the Legislative Council a law for a national Palestinian plebiscite. The sitting legislature’s term ran out nearly two years ago and has been automatically extended.

As agreed in the Oslo Accords, presidential and parliamentary elections took place in 1995. International observers, including former US President Jimmy Carter, declared those elections free and fair. The term of the elections was meant to coincide with the end of the five-year interim phase. Palestinians were expecting that a Palestinian state would have been established before the end of the millennium.

The dream of Palestinian statehood was turned into a nightmare. Hope has turned into despair. Expected Israeli withdrawals were replaced by repeated Israeli invasions. The promise of ending Jewish settlement building has never materialized and successive Israeli governments continued to build exclusive apartments for Jews on expropriated Palestinian lands that were meant to be part of this new independent state.

In the Palestinian society, two schools of thought had been competing. One insisted that talk of democracy, transparency and human rights is not practical before there is real independence, another, which I am proud to have been part of, wanted the struggle for independence and democracy to go hand in hand.

The Israelis’ hesitations, continued settlement activities and general anti-independence actions and policies dealt a blow to the second school of thought. For most, the fight for national independence became an existential issue and the democracy issue became a luxury that could wait till after statehood is arrived at. Public opinion, which was divided on the issue, shifted completely in favor of those calling for all efforts to be channeled towards resistance to the Israeli occupation and collective struggle for freedom.

With Israel and its occupation being the main obstacle to the Palestinian struggle for independence, it was strange to hear the leader of this occupation force calling for Palestinian democracy on the steps of the White House. An occupier whose military presence denies basic freedom to the occupied should be the last authority on earth to ask the people under the barrel of its gun for democratic change. This particular occupier has been notorious for his anti-democratic activities concerning Palestinians, not the least of which last month’s destruction.

I am speaking from personal experience. The educational television station mentioned above, that was meant to be a voice for democracy, was occupied by Israeli soldiers between April 3 and 22. During this time, not only were we prevented from continuing broadcasting, but by the time the invading soldiers withdrew, they left behind a destroyed building, broken equipment, valuable cameras stolen and precious data irreversibly destroyed. Our TV station had espoused a mission of democracy, moderation and tolerance, and was actively involved in peaceful projects with the Israelis.

If democracy is the rule of the people, then the road to democracy in the Middle East must go through one of two directions: either Israel annexes the Palestinian areas and grants Palestinians rights equal to the Israelis or Israeli troops withdraw from Palestinian areas occupied in 1967 in order to allow the people to elect their own government and rule. Choosing the leaders of your enemy will never work. Nor can the conflict be solved by military means. A peaceful solution to the conflict demands that the chosen leaders of our peoples sit down and negotiate a settlement that can provide Palestinians with an independent and democratic state and Israelis with a safe and recognized state