Global Policy Forum

The Palestinians have been lobbying for some type of U.N. monitors in the West Bank and Gaza for years, but Israel has flatly opposed an international force in the region.

The United States, Israel's closest ally, has repeatedly blocked action in the U.N. Security Council to impose such a force, insisting that both sides would have to give their consent before peacekeepers could be sent in.

But U.N. rights prober John Dugard of South Africa said international monitors or peacekeepers had been effective in many less threatening situations around the world ''and there is no reason why the occupied Palestinian territories should be treated differently.''

In a report to the 189-nation U.N. General Assembly, Dugard said he ''finds it difficult to understand why no serious attempt has been made by the international community to persuade Israel to accept such a presence.''

''It is incumbent on the international community to ensure that such an agreement is forthcoming,'' he said.

Dugard, appointed to his post by the Geneva-based U.N. Commission on Human Rights in July, said the main factor behind the fighting which has raged since September 2000 was Israel's continued occupation of Palestinian territories. Peace would not come until Israel gave clear signs of its intent to end the occupation, he said.

AN AGGRAVATING SIGN

Moreover, Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza were ''an ever visible and aggravating sign of occupation and of Israel's illegal conduct as an occupying power,'' he said, saying Israel should start dismantling the settlements now.

Dugard's report was issued three days after the latest unsuccessful Palestinian effort to persuade the U.N. Security Council to send a monitoring mission to the Middle East.

Instead, the council's 15 member-nations issued a statement expressing deep concern about the continuing violence and urging Israel to immediately withdraw its troops from West Bank towns it had reoccupied after the recent slaying of a cabinet minister.

Diplomats said the council was expected to meet again in the next few days to decide whether to take further action in the Middle East, which would depend on whether Israel withdrew its troops from six West Bank towns it entered 10 days ago.

The United States has called for a full withdrawal from all the Palestinian-ruled areas that Israeli forces entered after the assassination of Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi. But the soldiers have so far withdrawn only from Bethlehem and Beit Jala.

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