The law professor, Anne Bayefsky, :{ "Arafat is the terrorist" March 30} clearly does not understand international law. The cause of the terrorism and violence in Palestine/Israel is Israeli illegal occupation of Palestinian territories that has been allowed to stand for 35 years, in defiance of international law and repeated Security Council resolutions. The Palestinian people are being subjected to demolition of their homes, expropriation of their land, uprooting of their trees, torture, extra-judicial assassination and daily humiliation, all in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. This is the real terrorism that is driving Palestinians, deprived of any justice or hope, to commit their acts of violence and suicidal killing. Sharon's bombing and killing of Palestinians is terrorism pure and simple.

It is time for Israeli apologists and our political leaders and media to understand that the root cause of the inexcusable killing of innocent civilians, on both sides, is the real terrorism engendered in the illegal occupation. The only way to obtain peace and security, for both peoples, is to bring an immediate and complete termination of this illegal occupation.