Dear Editors,

I and peoples everywhere in the world are deeply concerned with the continuing brutal conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people. For more than seventy five years I have been hoping for a just, peaceful and permanent solution to the Palestinian Israeli conflict.

I wish to state that before teaching, I was senior political affairs officer of the United Nations responsible for sanctions against apartheid from 1978 until the liberation of South Africa in 1994, and represented the United Nations Center against Apartheid in congratulating Mr. Nelson Mandela on the liberation of South Africa.

Furthermore, I wish to state that the students and the academic communities in the United States and West Europe as well as athletes like Muhammad Ali and artists like Harry Belafonte contributed tremendously to the peaceful ending of the abhorrent system of apartheid.  There was a bill in Congress in 1986 to impose sanctions against South Africa. President Ronald Reagan vetoed that bill. Although President Reagan was popular, American students and athletics and the public at large succeeded in getting Congress to override President Reagan veto, and the adoption of the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid of 1986. After the adoption of sanctions in the United States and West Europe, the apartheid regime began serious negotiations with the liberation movements of South Africa to end apartheid.

On the same basis, I believe that it is a commendable idea for American students to urge for peace and justice in the Holy Land.

Therefore, the latest bloodshed and carnage of Palestinians and Israelis have represented a significant challenge to the United Nations Security Council, which has not been able to find a just and last peaceful settlement to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. It is essential for peace and justice in the Holy Land that the United Nations Security Council must meet and adopt a final peace plan, which includes the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Palestinian Territories occupied in 1967, the establishment of a Palestinian state in the Palestinian Territories occupied by Israel in 1967, and a commitment by the Security Council to protect the peace and security of all states and peoples of the Middle East including the state of Israel and the Palestinian state, which must conclude peace treaties confirming the renunciation of use of force and violence and entering into normal peaceful relations including diplomatic relations.