Situation in the OPT – Letter from Palestine

LETTER DATED 2 JUNE 1992 FROM THE PERMANENT OBSERVER OF

PALESTINE TO THE UNITED NATIONS ADDRESSED TO THE

SECRETARY-GENERAL

I am instructed by the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which has the powers and responsibilities of the Provisional Government of Palestine, to bring the following to your immediate attention:

Israel, the occupying Power, has now kept the Gaza Strip sealed off for eight consecutive days.  In practical terms, this means that the Strip is completely cut off from the outside world, following the blockage of all sea and land exits.  In addition, the curfew is – for the ninth consecutive day – still in effect in the central area of the Strip.

Furthermore, the process of separating the different areas of the Strip from each other is being maintained, particularly by allowing armed settlers – whose presence in the occupied territory is illegal – to block the internal road from the northern to the southern areas by setting up controls on the road south of the town of Deir el Balah.

These practices are among the most repulsive forms of collective punishment imaginable.  Besides making the lives of some 850,000 Palestinian nationals living in the Gaza Strip unbearable, the practices also flagrantly violate the fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 and are incompatible with many resolutions of the Security Council and the General Assembly, as well as human rights conventions.

The Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine to the United Nations calls for urgent intervention by the Security Council and the Secretary-General to put an end to this tragic situation in the Gaza Strip.  It also calls upon them to implement relevant Security Council resolutions, and in particular resolution 681 (1990).  In addition, we repeat once more the demands of the Palestinian people to ensure the provision of international protection in the occupied territory as the only possible practical solution to end the suffering of the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territory and to halt Israeli practices against them there.  Efforts in this direction will create the necessary conditions for the continuation and successful outcome of the current peace process.

I should be grateful if you would have this letter circulated as a document of the General Assembly, under items 30, 35 and 74 of the preliminary list, and of the Security Council.

(Signed)  Nasser AL-KIDWA

Permanent Observer of Palestine

to the United Nations

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