Growing Call for International Protection Force for the Palestinian People

The escalating violence and chaos in the Middle East has claimed the lives of close to 1,000 Palestinians in the last six months, including hundreds of youth and children. In the past two months alone, 200 Palestinians have been killed and over 6,000 wounded.

The situation has become so horrifying that even the United States, the greatest champion of Israel internationally, has called publicly for Israel to show more "restraint".

While various attempts are being made to salvage the peace process, this is unlikely to occur, given the Israeli government's refusal to adhere to any of the time lines set for withdrawal from the occupied territories of Gaza and the West Bank. Despite all the propaganda to the contrary, including the suggestion that this intifada of the Palestinian people was the result of the visit of one man - Ariel Sharon - to a religious site in Jerusalem some months before, it is the continued occupation of Palestine by the Israeli army and police forces that is the root cause of the present situation. The Sharon government is using attacks carried out against Israelis as the pretext for extending the occupation and making its character even more brutal, including the recent large-scale air strikes against Palestinian government and security installations.

Article 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights recognizes the inalienable right of all peoples to self-determination. The Israeli state continues to violate this right of the Palestinian people. Given the situation, a growing number of people throughout the world are publicly calling for an International Protection Force to be deployed in the occupied territories.

An international petition, to the attention of Mary Robinson, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, has been launched and in a short time has garnered close to 100,000 signature. The petition calls for a total end to the occupation and appeals to the High Commissioner to establish an international protection force for the Palestinian people as a first step to the implementation of the Palestinian right to self-determination.