Situation in the OPT/Refugees – Letter from Japan

Distr.

GENERAL

A/35/81

S/13772

31 January 1980

ORIGINAL:  ENGLISH

GENERAL ASSEMBLY SECURITY COUNCIL

Thirty-fifth session Thirty-fifth year

REPORT OF THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE

  ISRAELI PRACTICES AFFECTING THE HUMAN RIGHTS

  OF THE POPULATION OF THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES

Letter dated 30 January 1980 from the Permanent Representative of

Jordan to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General

I have the honour to draw your attention to the criminal acts committed by the Israeli military forces of occupation against the Palestinian Arabs living in the refugee camp of Al-Dhaisheh near Bethlehem.

At midnight on Tuesday, 25 December 1979, a contingent of Israel soldiers stormed the refugee camp and through loudspeakers ordered the helpless Arab refugees men and women from age 14 to 56 to come out of their homes and gather in city square while another force seized the camp and imposed curfew.  A third Israeli force waged a house-to-house search, beating and dragging any persons found inside their homes.

When the people gathered in the school yard under the chills and rain of the mountains of Hebron, they were told by the occupation soldiers to wait until the military governor came and gave them his instructions.  They waited for more than 10 hours and, when they protested for keeping them waiting that long under inhumane conditions, some of them were put under the rain gutters.  When the Israeli military governor arrived, he threatened to impose more punishments if the camp children threw rocks at the military trucks.

When the military governor ordered the crowd dispersed, the soldiers detained 70 Arabs for further investigation.  Moreover, occupation authorities stopped all administrative services to the residents of Al-Dhaisheh refugee camp such as the issuing of permits, identification cards and other necessary documents.

I kindly request that you draw the attention of the Israeli authorities to these acts and request them to refrain from bestial behaviour against helpless Palestinian refugees in the occupied territories and to abide strictly by the provisions of the fourth Geneva Convention 1/ pertaining to the protection of civilians under occupation.

I also request that this letter be circulated as official document of the General Assembly, under the item entitled “Report of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Population of the Occupied Territories”, and of the Security Council.

                                                (Signed) Hazem NUSFIBEH

   Ambassador

                                                   Permanent Representative

——

1/United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 75, No. 973, p. 287