Situation in the OPT – Letter from CEIRPP Chairman

Letter dated 21 May 1990 from the Chairman of the Committee

on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian

People addressed to the Secretary-General

As Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, I wish to express anguish and outrage at the massacre near Tel Aviv of Palestinian workers from Gaza and at the subsequent brutal repression by Israel, the occupying Power, against Palestinian demonstrators.

According to press dispatches by Reuters, Agence France Presse and UPI, and reports in The New York Times and The Washington Post, a former Israeli soldier dressed in army trousers and brandishing an assault rifle lined up dozens of Palestinian workers on a roadside in Rishon Le-Zion, near Tel Aviv, in the morning of 20 May, and opened fire, killing 7 and wounding 11.  Defying a curfew imposed by the Israeli army, Palestinians took to the streets in great numbers throughout the occupied territory to protest against the massacre.  A three-day general strike was called by the leadership of the intifadah.  In the ensuing confrontations, Israeli troops shot and killed another five Palestinians in Gaza and two in the West Bank, and wounded at least 650 more.

On behalf of the Committee, I wish to protest in the strongest terms against the indiscriminate actions by the Israeli army in firing on unarmed demonstrators who were understandably enraged by the massacre.  The Committee finds it unconscionable that the murderous action of a disturbed individual, instead of leading to swift justice, should be used by the occupying forces to launch a new wave of repression against the Palestinians in the occupied territory.  The Committee strongly deplores the climate of hate engendered by the repressive policies of the occupying Power, which cannot but lead to growing tension and violence.

These grave incidents show once again that the present Israeli Government flouts its obligations as the occupying Power under the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and refuses to take the necessary steps to engage in a peace process.  Under the circumstances, the Committee considers it imperative that the Security Council should adopt urgent measures to provide the necessary protection for the Palestinian people under occupation, as repeatedly requested by the General Assembly and by the international community as a whole.  The Committee further appeals once again with the utmost urgency to the high contracting parties to the Convention to take all necessary measures to ensure respect for the Convention.  The Committee considers that ultimately true protection for the Palestinians can be achieved only through the exercise of their right to self-determination and the establishment of their own State, alongside Israel, with the proper security guarantees, and calls on all concerned to intensify their efforts to promote a comprehensive, just and lasting settlement through the convening of the International Peace Conference on the Middle East in accordance with the principles contained in General Assembly resolution 44/42 of 6 December 1989.

I should be grateful if you would have the text of this letter circulated as an official document of the forty-fourth session of the General Assembly, under agenda item 39, and of the Security Council.

(Signed)  Absa Claude DIALLO

Chairman

Committee on the Exercise

of the Inalienable Rights

of the Palestinian People

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