Mark Kroeker Named to Middle East Peace Panel

Mark Kroeker, former deputy Los Angeles police chief, has been appointed to a committee charged with finding ways to identify and eliminate the root causes of violence between Israelis and Palestinians.

The committee was established at the Middle East peace process summit meeting at Wye River Plantation in Maryland last month. The committee will be made up of four Americans, four Palestinians and four Israelis. It is to be called the Trilateral Anti-Incitement Committee. Its members will meet for the first time this week in Jerusalem.

Each country’s delegation includes representatives from law enforcement, the media, politics and education. Other U.S. members are former Notre Dame President Theodore Hesburgh, veteran foreign correspondent Bernard Kalb and Melvin Levine, a former Democratic congressman from Santa Monica.

Kroeker said the committee is supposed to investigate violent incidents, determine their underlying causes and recommend ways to eliminate them. It is, Kroeker said, “an overwhelming charge,” given the bitter history of conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.

Kroeker was a member of the LAPD for 32 years. He retired in 1997 when Bernard C. Parks was named chief. Kroeker had been a strong candidate for the job. He spent most of the time since serving as deputy commissioner of a United Nations police force in Bosnia.