In your editorial { " Arafat's death leaves void' Nov.12}, you accuse Arafat of " launching a bloody, doomed-to-failure Intifada." This is a total falsehood. The Intifada was deliberately provoked by Ariel Sharon who marched, on Sept. 29,2000, with a thousand armed Israeli soldiers, into the sacred Muslim compund of Al-Aqsa Mosque, in collusion with Ehud Barak, Israel's then prime minister. The peaceful demonstration of Palestinians at the Mosque, against this intrusion, resulted in killing many Palestinian worshippers with Israeli gunfire.

The primary cause for the lack of peace in The Holy Land is Israeli continuing illegal occupation of Palestinian land, in defiance of international law and repeated Security Council resolutions.

It is time that the international community, including the US, should act to enforce UN resolutions and thus ensure peace and security for both the Israeli and Palestinian peoples.