Situation in the OPT – Letter from CEIRPP Chairman

GENERAL ASSEMBLY                                 SECURITY COUNCIL  

Forty-seventh session                            Forty-eighth year

Agenda item 30

QUESTION OF PALESTINE

Letter dated 23 March 1993 from the Chairman of the Committee

on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian

People addressed to the Secretary-General

In my capacity as Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, I would like to draw your attention to the increasingly grave situation in the occupied Palestinian territory as a result of the intensification of repressive measures by the Israeli authorities.

Since the deportation of over 400 Palestinians in mid-December, there has been a rise in clashes between Israeli soldiers and armed settlers and the Palestinian people living in the occupied Palestinian territory.  About 50 Palestinians have been shot and killed in street disturbances – a death rate not seen in several years.  Most of the Palestinian casualties – at least 15 deaths in the month of March – have been in the Gaza Strip, where 4 people were killed this weekend alone.  A large proportion of the victims continue to be children under 16.

According to the recent State Department global human rights report, Israel Defence Force killings of Palestinians increased 62 per cent in 1992 from a year earlier.  In their efforts to quell Palestinian resistance to the occupation, the Israeli authorities have further relaxed the use of live ammunition to deal with demonstrations, have launched armed attacks against Palestinian houses and have continued to engage in undercover killings of Palestinian militants and to impose blanket curfews and other forms of collective punishment.

Far from restoring calm to the occupied Palestinian territory, it is clear that these measures only fuel greater resistance and add to the tension and violence in a manner that arouses the greatest concern.  Such Israeli policies drastically undermine the efforts aimed at achieving peace in the Middle East, and present another obstacle besides the unresolved question  of  deportees  due  to  Israel's non-compliance with Security Council resolution 799 (1992) of 18 December 1992.

On behalf of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, I wish once again to convey alarm at the continued disregard by Israel, the occupying Power, of its obligations under the fourth Geneva Convention and the relevant Security Council resolutions.  The Committee appeals to the Security Council to take the necessary measures to provide appropriate protection to the Palestinian people, in accordance with the provisions of the Geneva Convention and Security Council resolutions, in particular resolution 681 (1990) of 20 December 1990.

I should be grateful if you would have the text of the present letter circulated as a document of the General Assembly, under agenda item 30, and of the Security Council.

 (Signed)  Kéba Birane CISSÉ

    Chairman

   Committee on the Exercise

of the Inalienable Rights

of the Palestinian People

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