No maps are given to show that this killing is in illegally occupied areas, and we read few explanations as to why Palestinians are demonstrating.

Investigations by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Physicians for Human Rights, the United Nations, and Israeli Human Rights groups go unreported. All have condemned Israel's use of force over the past two months resulting in the death of more than 230 Palestinians (including 60 children) and injuring thousands.

Even details of what happened at the negotiations are still under wraps, except the oft-repeated myth that Barak made unspecified ''far reaching concessions.''

To understand how we arrived at this sorry state of affairs, we should examine the role of the Henry Kissinger-codified US foreign policy of the 1970s. This includes our ''unique'' relationship with Israel, massive foreign aid (currently several billion dollars per year), commitment to keeping Israeli military superiority to any combined regional force, and commitment to do nothing against Israeli interests.

President Bill Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, and Texas Governor George W. Bush repeatedly emphasized this latter point by pledging never to pressure Israel (not even when US interests are at stake).

Even as the Israeli forces escalated attacks on civilians recently, Congress approved additional military aid and passed a resolution supporting Israel. Clinton just asked for an additional $255 million in military aid to Israel.

For Palestinians in the streets, events after the ceremony on the White House lawn in 1993 showed that Oslo was part of the problem and not part of the solution. Under Oslo, Israel continued to expand settlements, confiscate more Palestinian land, demolish Palestinian homes, build bypass roads, keep thousands of political dissidents in jail, and tighten the economic strangulation of the Palestinian population centers.

These actions were accelerated under Ehud Barak's government.

Contrary to media reports and emboldened by US support, Barak did not propose anything new to what Israel proposed since the mid-1970s (centered on Israel's perceived self-interest to relieve Israeli forces from policing Palestinians while maintaining Israeli rule). Barak never agreed to relinquish settlement blocs, which, combined with the bypass roads between them, would leave only 60 percent of the area of the West Bank and Gaza (or about 13 percent of the total land mass of Palestine) to return to the Palestinians.

Barak was uncompromising on Jerusalem. West Jerusalem was illegally occupied by Israel in 1948 (Palestinian owners were expelled), and East Jerusalem was illegally occupied in 1967. UN Security Council Resolution 242 reaffirmed the illegality of holding territory by force. A better frame of reference is UNSCR 181, which provided for partition in Palestine, with Jerusalem to be held under international rule.

Barak's concept of Palestinian autonomy (do their own garbage collection!) while keeping Jerusalem is not an acceptable solution. By revoking residency rights, demolishing homes, preventing refugees from returning, barricading the city from surrounding Palestinian areas, and other acts described as Judaicizing the city, Israel has forfeited its potential as a fair ruler in Jerusalem.

Finally, Barak denies any Israeli responsibility for the Palestinian refugee problem and will agree only to token ''family reunification'' with no time limits. According to Israeli historians, the refugees (now numbering millions) fled by a process of ''ethnic cleansing'' by Israeli forces.

Palestinian Right of Return to their homes and lands is protected by UNGA 194, reaffirmed practically every year with universal consensus except for Israel (and lately the United States). The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 13) also affirms the right of every individual to leave and return to his country.

The interests of peace are not served by a ''peace process,'' whose goal is to legitimize occupation and dispossession or by keeping truths hidden from the public. The inalienable rights of refugees, self-determination, true sovereignty, and simple human rights cannot be bargained away by ''negotiations'' between a strong Israel aided by the United States and a weak and old Arafat.

Any agreement that fails to correct injustices will be short-lived and will not give Israelis and Palestinians peace or security. Israel's versions of apartheid will not succeed any more than those tried in South Africa.

The United States is bound by its Constitution to support human rights and freedom and not to support ''ethnic cleansing'' and religious intolerance.

Mazin Qumsiyeh is chairman of the media committee of the Palestine Right to Return Coalition.

© Copyright 2000 Globe Newspaper Company

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