Today President Clinton will host a conference for donor countries in order to raise funds for Palestine. The President, who spent 85 hours in October to secure the Wye River Accord, helped to put the stalled Palestinian- Israeli peace process back on track when he joined with Palestinian President Mr Yasser Arafat and the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, in signing the accord.

President Clinton understands that to isolate the extremists and to move the peace process forward, the social and economic welfare of the Palestinian people must be improved. The people must be able to see the benefits of peace because security measures alone are not sufficient to achieve security, even if 100 per cent efforts are made. Security comes from peace and not the other way around.

Few Palestinians have gained from the Oslo deal (which preceded the Wye Accord but was never properly implemented). Income has fallen, access to Jerusalem's holy sites is difficult and Israel refuses to permit safe passage between Gaza and the West Bank. Many families have been dispirited by this outcome, although the Wye Accord provides for measures to remedy the situation.

These conditions play into the hands of Hamas, the grassroots Palestinian movement, which in the 1980s was supported by the Israel government. It permitted Hamas to open a wide range of charities in the hope of undermining the PLO. Failure to implement the Oslo agreement played into the hands of the extremists. Implementing the Wye Accord in full and on time, without any backtracking, is essential in order to avoid giving extremists a new lease of life.

This is a real danger. In general most of the first stage of the Wye Accord is being implemented despite the last-minute readjustment of the redeployment map by the Israeli government and the release of only 100 of the 750 political prisoners it was supposed to free under the agreement. The other prisoners it released were petty criminals, car thieves etc. This kind of backsliding is not conducive to the trust and confidence which must be built if the Wye Accord is to succeed.

The implementation of the accord might pave the way for the resumption of the peace negotiations between Israel and both Syria and Lebanon on the basis of the Madrid Middle East peace conference principles, which include UN security council resolutions 242, 338, 425 and the land for peace formula.

Peace requires courage and determination. The best example of this is South Africa, where, throughout the negotiations, appalling atrocities were committed by extremists on both sides but President Nelson Mandela and Mr F.W. de Klerk did not allow themselves to be deflected and focused on the prize of peace. As a result there is now peace in South Africa and the extremists have disappeared from the scene.

The final status negotiations, which cover areas such as the future of Jerusalem, Jewish settlements, Palestinian refugees, water and borders are now under way. The Wye accord requires both sides to help create a positive environment for negotiations: "neither side shall initiate or take any step that will change the status of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip".

Unfortunately, Israel has already violated the accord by the government decision to spend hundreds of millions of pounds to build Jewish settlements such as Har Homa (Jabal Ohnaim) in Jerusalem, constructing bypass roads. Israel has also accelerated the confiscation of 125,000 acres of Palestinian lands, 10 per cent of the West Bank which can now be used for the expansion of Jewish settlements.

Mr Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Foreign Minister, urged Jews to grab any hilltop they can before the land is taken over by Palestinians. The US expressed its disappointment and said such action is inconsistent with the spirit of the Wye River Accord.

Building Jewish settlements is a major obstacle to peace. It transforms the demographic map of the occupied territories and therefore pre-empts the outcome of the final status negotiation. The Israeli government foresees the future of the Palestinian territories as a kind of apartheid. The Palestinian areas would become bantustans whose economy, security and relations with the outside world would be permanently controlled by Israel.

The Oslo and Wye accords between Israel and the PLO were not only bilateral agreements but international ones, and therefore economic and political pressures should be used by the international community, especially the European Union and the US, to force the implementation of the accords.

The final negotiations should be completed no later than May 4th, 1999. By that date a final peace treaty should be reached with Israel and the Palestinian people will be able to exercise their right to self-determination and to establish their independent state. If an agreement is not reached by that date then the Palestinians will unilaterally declare the state of Palestine in the land of Palestine in the same way Israel was created in 1948. The borders between Israel and Palestine will be determined by negotiations and UN resolutions.

The eight million Palestinian people have been suffering in the last 100 years although they did not commit a crime; they did not commit aggression against anyone; they did not occupy the land of any other people ; they were dispersed and forced by military power to a life in the diaspora and exile.

Eighty one years ago this month the declaration which led to the establishment of the state of Israel was issued by then British Foreign Secretary Lord Balfour (dubbed "Bloody Balfour" by the Irish during his time as Chief Secretary for Ireland). At that time in Palestine, Jews, Christians and Muslims lived side by side in peace and harmony. It was the Zionists who used religion to advance their political objectives.

The Palestinian people have never been religious fanatics. The Israeli state however, based some of its laws on religion. The Israeli law of Return allows Jews from anywhere in the world to settle in Palestine. But native Palestinians are forbidden to return and settle in their own country, even though their right to do so has been affirmed by UN resolutions.

December 25th, 1999, will be the 2000th anniversary of the birth of Christ, ushering in the new millennium. The Oslo and the Wye accords are due to be implemented in full before that date and the Palestinian people will exercise their right to self-determination and independent statehood. Thousands of Irish people will want to visit the Holy Land at that time. All political leaders have a responsibility to ensure that they will be able to visit a land of peace and harmony where Christians, Jews and Muslims are at peace with each other.

Dr Yousef Allan is delegate general of Palestine to Ireland